Life and Being Sidetracked

 

I am posting this on all of my blogs in hopes that it inspires me and lets others know I am still around just have had some major things in my life come up, change or whatever. Life is really like a box of chocolates. hahaha

Life has a way of sidetracking a person and I feel many would agree the past 3 years has been interesting to say the least on many levels. Creativity and other things has been on hold while my life has been in constant flux of change some bad, but mostly good. Loads of changes with me, my farm, and the things I am doing. Some things get neglected or put on hold while the priority stuff that comes up always something new of course gets done first. I have decided to do some more inner work. When is a Scorpio sun ever not doing inner work most of us are always dying and rebirthing. Out with the old and in with the new. A common cycle for us as a water sign so it seems death and rebirth. My Taurus rising does complain about it though liking more stability and all. haha

I have been working in the greenhouse and landscape industry for the past year that has taken up a lot of time from about April to mid October 50-60 hours per week. Plus trying to work the farm and animals, be in a relationship (long story kind of), and have time for me to decompress from all of it. It was something I needed to do and so I did. Prior to this year 2022 I had worked at a small greenhouse. Thanks for the opportunity Jean. I needed to do more for income to help get necessary work and repairs done. Owning a place either in town or out in the country always needs upkeep and repairs which takes resources like money, time, and skills. I feel most would agree we are sometimes short on all three. 

Life is changing I found a new greenhouse and landscape job also inspires my creative side which is good. I really like the people I am working with another positive. I should be working more 'normal' hours with the option of some overtime if I would want it. This is a plus and I like the flexibility also. I am off until end of march for sure. I will be doing some resting, reorganizing, inner work, and some creative stuff. 

Lots of repairs on the farm and still more to do. It is a never ending job when things start getting older, weather causing some stuff, the same old thing as usual nothing really out of the ordinary to be honest. Time changes everything even us. I am getting older. haha

Winter is here in central minnesota so it is giving me time to do what I need to and get ready for spring, because as usual it will get busy quick and there is much to do. My intent is to get more things done in 2023 upgrades, repairs, etc. I have new family members my cat named Buddy I inherited from my boyfriend when he passed. My rabbit named chubbers I got from my friend Terri. They are both young and characters. The rabbit is better behaved than the cat. haha They are both loving little critters and a good addition to the family. I never have to fear not having children animals are always coming into my life when the timing is right. I will post pictures of both when I can get some. Until the next post. Happy Holidays from all of us on the farm. 

Preparing For Spring....

It's that time of the year to start planning for spring. I ordered seeds and plants/tubers earlier this month. I have even started some seeds, onions to be exact. I order some rose bush seeds more for fun to see how they turn out. I got a red, purple, white, and yellow and their are in my fridge stratifying for about 2 months. I got some lemon grass and those have rooted about time to transplant them into pots.

Onion Seedlings

I also decided I should see how well my sweet potato and ginger roots took storage. I started those too. It seems some of my ginger roots did get frosted and have just rotted. The doors in the shop have shifted and one got left open a crack. I have enough time to a get few ginger roots from the store to start. I have several more reasons besides cooking to grow ginger. I have been making homemade root beer and ginger ale/beer, which is not really a beer. It does have kick though. I will talk more about that on my food/herb blog. :)

Ginger Root

 My sweet potatoes did alright and I have a few with sprouts on them now.I have Beauregard tubers from Johhny's Selected Seeds I planted last year. I did order two different varieties for planting this spring and will get those starts in May some time. I will receive those from Urban Farmer Seeds. I am going to go through this process later in March and compare start times to finished tubers, etc.

Sweet Potato Starts

On the order of gardening stuff. I bought some red wigglers for my worm bin. It has been vacant for several years when I very little success with my last bunch of wigglers. I got better suggestions this time and I have some happy worms busily working on our scraps from fruits, veggies, etc.

Worm Bin

Happy Working Worms

The weather has been wacky as usual, but warmer on the average. The last 2 days we had got around 20 below. Brrr.... Still not warm enough to work on the tractor, which is still giving me issues. I am back to looking at the carburetor, when warmer weather shows up. In the mean time, 'Olive' has been doing just fine with the feeding the cows. :) We are slower and can only move one bale at a time. It is something we can deal with.

I have been doing a little family ancestry searching. Jim order a month's basic subscription to ancestry.com. I have been mixing it up so to speak to pass the winter blues. Sewing, cooking, baking, fermenting, starting seeds and tubers, chores, etc. Keeps me busy. :)

Happy Farming!

Liana

Cold Weather and Head Colds..

It has been really cold here and in the process we ended up with head colds too. We ate lots of turkey and vegetable soup, chili, and then chicken and vegetable soup. I think I added every herb and spice I figured would help clean out the sinuses and loosen stuff up. Besides typical daily chores we have just been resting. It sounds like we were not alone either many other people had gotten sick also.I have not even wrote on my blogs until now. We are on the mend and finally feeling well enough to get some errands done toward the end of this week. Including a few other odds and ends I have had planned, but were put on hold. Last time I was sick was last spring when I was working too much out in the wet and cold weather that did me in for about 2 weeks.

I am still working on the D-15 when it is warm. Hopefully, the parts I ordered will be here when the weather is at its warmest. I need to get that tractor to be more dependable in starting.

I have been looking at seed catalogs and have been planning what I am going to get and plant for this year. Mom and I are not sure what is going to make it through this winter for our hold over plants. I really want to expand into selling annuals, perennials, and hopefully trees and shrubs on the farm. We need to add other items to sell on the farm besides beef, breeding stock, and a few eggs. Field crops besides hay is not an option. We don't have enough tillable acres and we need the hay for the animals. We have enough space to have a small greenhouse and grow plants. I love working with nature either it being animals or plants, so it seems like a good fit. I want to have bees again, but unless the weather quits being messed with it is almost impossible to have honey bees. I will keep promoting natural pollinators in the process by planting different flowers. The cheapest way to go at this point.

We also will be looking for some hens that are laying this spring. After the badger wiped out all but 3 little chicks. We really don't have any replacement hens for the older girls and they have been passing on to the big chicken heaven in the sky. I think we are down to about 15 hens. Enough for eggs for us and mom and dad, but no extras to sell. It was quit helpful to sell those extras last year.It made a difference in the expense of the feed bill. I also need to rebuild or remodel the chicken coop this year. The picture above is when I first built it. The squirrels one year really did some damage. The frame overall is in pretty good shape. I just want to remodel the back end and it needs new poly weave or something anyways. I like the greenhouse part of it. This allows a lot of light to come in which helps in not having to use electricity for lighting or heating. It gets cold at night but heats up really well during the day.

Lots of things to work on and plan for this year. It can be quit exciting and also frustrating trying to figure out how to get it done. :)

Happy Farming!
Liana

Farm Update & Some off Topics News....

ShaRaab

The usual here at the farm chores and whatever else needs done. I am still trying to figure out the starting issues with the D-15. I might have one other idea; that is actually the starter button and the wiring to it. I believe it is probably the original, which would make it 48 years old. Something that happened the other day just made me think of it possibly being the starter button and wiring. I will share more on that at a later date. Oh my, another 2 years and the tractor will be an antique officially. :)

The picture above is my horse ShaRaab. He is all Arabian, just not registered. This was taken a few years back. He looks the same except he got a few cockle burs in his hair again this year. This coming year I need to work on that problem. Burdock is a widely used herb, the root part. I need to look up and be sure that this particular species is the one most commonly used. I may share that on my new blog 'Liana's Food & Herbal Cupboard'. It is not created yet just in the planning stages at this point.

The weather here is unusual. I really should be use to it by now. It has been in the 30s. It tries to snow, but it usually melts. I really don't mind actually. It has been raining more, which has it positive and negative effects. It is good to get moisture, but ice with temps this low can be make things icy. We are also getting muddy, which has its own issues.On to my off topic (meaning non-farm related) news.

I do a bit of reading on various topics that does not come from main stream media. At least, not from NBC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOXNews, plus the main stream news papers, or things like yahoo, etc. I think people get my point here. I stumble across news from more alternative media found on the web. I really have to use some discernment whatever I read. I feel most everyone should. Don't buy into the propaganda put out on the typical news outlets or social media.

I found this a bit interesting about Facebook, which I dumped here about a week ago now. This is not the first time I have left Facebook, but it will be my last time.I will link the story here and place some quotes. I figure everyone will read it if they wish or not.I have not read news from this site, so I do not know a lot about it. I just found the article interesting and actually hit the nail on the head on how I feel about Facebook and what it promotes. How it's users are used and what they actually end up sharing on it. In a nutshell, Facebook really promotes more negativity in the realm of emotions, promotes the things that keep us divided as a human race, and other things I won't mention here. Personally, I really don't want to feed into that mentality. There is more to it. It is actually very multilayered and somewhat complicated to put into written words or it would take too many. I feel most will know what I am talking about.

Link: Facebook Colonialism 2.0

"Facebook is the pinnacle of social engineering, an online operant conditioning chamber – also known as a Skinner box – that is being used to track, trace, document, and manipulate half of the entire online population. Despite users attempting to utilize Facebook to connect and communicate with individuals and organizations of interest, Facebook has turned its features against users, insidiously manipulating their timelines to show selected posts and updates while “soft censoring” others to manage public perception."
 
"We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues. Not only are the findings troubling – illustrating that Facebook possesses the ability to influence the emotions of its users unwittingly through careful manipulation of their news feeds – but the invasive, unethical methods by which Facebook conducted the experiment are troubling as well."

 "Far from a college kid with an overgrown corporation, what Facebook is doing is the manifestation of every tyranny’s dream scenario since the beginning of human history – a means by which to completely and insidiously manipulate and control the minds of its subjects."

I am sure Facebook is not the only online media doing this. I joined LinkedIn via a few people kept asking me to. I found it is also turning into another Facebook by promoting the negativity and division between people. I got rid of it too. I was never on Twitter or any of the other similar social media outlets. I have joined Pinterest, which I find more pleasing. I can look up interesting things under various topics, 'pin' them for myself to look at later and to share with others. I have set-up many boards with my interests, likes, etc. Even boards for my blogs here. I find this for myself a more positive way of sharing 'stuff' and I don't have to see all the negative, drama laden, and 'topics' that keep us humans divided, instead of teaching and helping us grow. The other big win here for me is I can find what I have shared. It does not get buried in all the posts with crap on them. Yea, I said it!

I am all for sharing whatever recipes, better way of living, DIY stuff, herbs, just about anything that helps us to grow mentally, help us to lead a more happy and fulling life, and to grow on a spiritual level. I have learn a lot of things I would have never thought of or never really knew. I am sure there are many out there who also could use their 'horizons' expanded a little too. There are positive things out on the internet, just not everything is.There are many outlets like reading, but I would have never found all my books on herbs, sustainable and organic farming if I had to utilize just the library and local bookstores. 

Thank you internet for all you have exposed me to, even the stuff I had never wished to have seen ever. 

Happy Farming and internet browsing! 

Liana

Mid December & No Snow...

The picture above is in March of 2007. We could easily look like this. I am just glad we don't. I will add a picture tomorrow of what it really looks like. :)

Dec 15, 2014

 It's crazy the few inches of snow we had is all gone now. It reached 45 degrees and it is suppose to be in the 30s yet tomorrow. The humidity is so high that visibility is not very good. Reminds me of the winter of 91-92 I spent in England. Today we were out walking in one of the pastures to work on the fence. I will tell that story in a minute. It was so foggy I recalled a quote from the movie "Robinhood: Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner. Morgan Freeman said, "Is there no sun in this blessed country?" Jim laughed at me. :)

Ok, back to the why we were fencing. We went out to do chores. I noticed my older bull was gone. I was like hmmm..wonder where he went. The cows were all up. I went wandering walking the fence line to see if a tree went down. I should have known better really. I found the darn hole he went through caused by him and another accomplice. I went back to the house, made sure the cows stayed in, and went over to the old farm. I found him in a herd of cows and calves. I found his accomplice ( a young maybe 2 year old bull) pouting by a tree. Anyways, to make a long story short. I got him cut off from the rest of the herd. Yes, I did this on foot. I sent Jim back to the house with the car. I call the bull the 'Big Guy'. He got his name last summer when I had him with my yearling bulls. :) I told him those were not his girls or his home and he needed to go back home now. He gave me a little trouble, but he knew better. We walked up the lane to our pasture. He tried to go back a couple of times. I told him nope get going or you will be going to the sale barn and you won't like how that turns out. We got through the gate and headed back up to the buildings. I consider myself lucky really I can work with my animals like this without too much trouble.

So, boys will be boys as the saying goes. Find some girls and one too many guys around; they have to flaunt and see who is bigger and tougher. It is really annoying if they tear up your fence in the process. I never knew there was cattle over there. Having two bulls with just a fence between never works out very good. Whether it be a hot wire or 4 wire fence. If they are serious about keeping the other one out or getting to them they will go through it. I have had a bull come from quit a ways to harass another bull I had. It's just a pain and I try to keep enough fences and space between cattle for it not to be an issue.There has not been anything but horses for 2 years. I feel for the cows they are skinny like twigs and nothing really to eat. It's winter here in MN the grass is pretty much dormant or ate into the dirt on some places. Those cows thought I had come to feed them. It makes me sad.

All is well now. No one can go out to the other pasture and play with the neighbors. Big guy complained a little and then pouted by the fence. I said to Jim. "look at him he is pouting". Jim goes, "I see that". He got over it and went to sleep with the cows. I think the other bull won't be trying anything stupid for now and he has his herd back.The fence is repaired again. We had a huge tree fall on it this summer. We spent several hours or most of the day repairing the fence and cutting the tree up. I was not very happy they messed up our handy work. I had to stretch and repair 4 wires again!

I worked on the D-15 today also. It is still not running right. We have come to somewhat of a conclusion that the new battery may not be very good. I am going to try it again tomorrow, see how it starts, and go from there. I replaced quite a few electric parts and checked all my connections to the battery, etc. Only one other thing I can think of and that is the diode from the alternator to the battery. I had that issue in the past. If the 'juice' in my battery is gone tomorrow morning after charging it up today. I will know I need to get a new diode to keep the alternator from draining my battery. I will keep my fingers crossed for now and hope all will be as it should.

There is always something to figure out, fix, or do never a dull moment. Why I don't have a set in cement to do list everyday. Once I go outside I get to decide what needs to be done. Then I can make a 'immediate priority to do list', but it can change on a whim instantly. I have to laugh really or go crazy. haha

Happy Farming!

Liana

Warmer Weather??

It's not the winter solstice yet, so I am keeping in the mind set of warmth and fall scenes. :)  Supposedly we were going to have warmer weather according to the online weather people. I know the temps overall are warmer, but it does not feel like it. The humidity is higher than normal for us up here in Minnesota. I think I remember seeing something like 89% humidity on the online weather sites. It is usually way lower maybe more like 30-40%. We are known for our drier weather up here, especially winter.

The positive thing of it all is we have not been as cold like 20-30 degrees F below zero, which is a huge possibility. I really don't want a repeat of last winter and it was all winter. My animals even grumbled about it. We also have a lot less snow. I am not complaining just hoping for a more mild and amicable winter than we have had in the last 2 years.

Why I am talking about weather? I have been hoping it warms up enough to work on my Allis Chalmers D-15 tractor. She runs alright in general, but starting is an issue. This is an unusual occurrence for this tractor. One who starts in 40 below F weather with only a little grumble is grumbling a lot with temps in the 20s on the average. I have done everything but put a new coil in and replace the 'new' points I got 2 years back that were not 'right' back then. Sort of a long boring frustrating story. Anyways, the humidity being high and the temps colder has not been fun trying to work around cold steal. Reminds me of my days as a kid when other dumb kids would stick their tongues on cold steel and well get stuck there. I never tried it myself and have no intention of trying it either. hahaha

I do have a very small shop, but I have plants in it I am wintering over and smaller repair projects taking up space. It is still not really big enough for a tractor. It has kind of a low ceiling and door way. I know some would say I need a repair shop. I do in ways but it is just not heated. :)

The animals seem to be happy in general though, except for the occasional bale of swamp hay I run across the neighbor sold me. :( I am not happy with that at all. They just don't eat it, it is too coarse, does not keep well, and as for the taste that must not be all that delicious either. Some might think it is like being forced to eat vegetables. At least veggies are suppose to be good for you. There is very little food value in swamp grass/ reeds canary. My guess it would be like eating cardboard. I have ate crackers that reminded me of what it would be like to eat cardboard. Yuck! It makes good bedding that is about it though.

 I will be glad to finally be able to make my own hay now that I have acquired a round baler, a Vermeer Rebel 5500. I can run it with my also newly acquired old antique Oliver 880 tractor. A few minor repairs to the baler and overall maintenance check up, then try out the Oliver's hydraulics on the lift gate in the back of the baler to see what adjustments if any I need to make it work properly, and I am in the big round bale haying business. I do have a New Holland 273 square baler. That is so much work the majority of it being mostly handling of the bales. Getting them off the field and then having a place to store them until I can actually feed it. It's all the stacking and lifting that is work. I got that baler several years ago at an auction for $500. It was really a good buy. It has been a very dependable piece of equipment and worth every penny. Even though it is work, it has saved us money in hay in many ways. We just lack square bale storage space and the equipment to make the work easier. Of course all that costs more money too. It all seems to come down to having the money to get this or that to do this or that. It is never something the average farmer has a lot of in their pocket.

I have bought hay for many years now because I could not afford to buy haying equipment. Some other reasons, one being it was cheaper to buy years ago and not have the equipment to maintain. There still is some truth to it up to a point. I can think of several reasons making your own hay is in ways better and cheaper. The biggest one is you know what you are getting you made it and how and when it was made. Did it get rained on? Did it get baled a little too wet, the cause of moldy dusty hay. Did you bale it too mature? Animals hate hard stemmed forbes that have basically went to seed. They will eat the seeds sometimes, but that falls out in the baling process most of the time. What kind of field did you make hay on? Was it upland hay like a mixture of good palatable forbes and grasses? Plants to look for would be timothy, clovers, dandelions, fescue, birdsfoot trefoil, etc. Or was it a lowland field pasture with mostly reeds canary and sedge grasses. The latter cuts the edges of their mouths. They won't eat that anyways even grazing.

So many things to consider when making hay. I can have someone come in and bale my hay for me, but then will they do it when it needs to be done? Probably not. I have had neighbors help me out when I was in a pickle. I am grateful for that. :) When buying hay a person knows none of these things and is almost blind to what they might be getting until they actually feed it. A familiarity with haying, grasses, forbes is helpful here, but even I have been duped a few times. The other side knowingly or unknowingly doing it. The better quality the hay is the better the animals will do on it. In the end it could cost less, because a person will not need to supplement with other things to keep them healthy.

I am excited about being able to make my own big round bales of hay. :) A person can cover more ground, get the hay up, and stored before it gets rained on. For us this will be a blessing in many ways. :)

Happy farming
Love and light

Liana

Changes: Blog Name and Main Purpose

I could not sleep tonight for some reason. I just decided to get up and work on some things. This blog being one of them. I have been thinking more lately about what I want to do along the lines of my farm and sharing information. Yes, I did some clean-up on the blog. I have left what I think is more relevant info to the purpose of this blog. Many things are changing and I want to help with that change by sharing my experiences, knowledge, and new things I have learned about. I want to share what really boosts my enthusiasm and keeps me on a more positive track. 

Monsanto is still my 'best friend' of course since they have such an indirect and direct impact on what I do on the farm, so they won't be left out I am sure. Plus, I need to have 'something' to needle every once in a while just because they deserve it. :P

I have been thinking more lately of a farm name that can encompass just more than one venue. My farm started out as McCoy's Angus Ranch. I use to raised registered black angus cattle. Now they are just black angus minus the papers and paperwork. The reality is I never made enough money at it to justify all the extra work in the end and the angus association became to political in their leanings. Throwing most of their breeders and their farms under the bus for money, so I quit. Plus, I think I would like to get a jersey and some black Galloway beef cattle one day. :) Finally, a name came to me. I guess this is the right time. Oak Hill Farm. We have tons of white oak (bur oak) on the farm with some red oak. On every little hill or high area there is for the most part a grove of trees with lots of oaks, hence the new name. Besides there are more than just McCoys living on this farm now also.

With the help of my partner Jim. I grow hay, raise beef cattle, chickens, turkeys, and guineas. I grow vegetables, herbs, perennial and annual flowers, shrubs, trees, or whatever I can get to grow. I like to experiment a lot with cooking, baking, drying and preserving of my harvests. I like to build and make things and I am always thinking of new way to do things. Lately, I think I should become a mechanic for farm machinery and tractors and charge a $72/hour rate like the shops do. It's highway robbery really. I think I really only earn about $.72/ hour as a farmer. :( The inequality really bites. It is no wonder farmers fix so much of their own stuff in the end. In a nutshell, I have many interests and hobbies. Some I do for fun and enjoyment, other things I have to learn to save money here on the farm.
The sharing and being involved is what really boosts my enthusiasm and keeps me in a more positive direction. I see more things going bye, bye in the near future, which means I will be doing more 'house cleaning'. I think I am finally getting tired. Off to bed I go.

P.S. I am also thinking about starting a creative, DIY (do it yourself), arts and craft blog, which will share things I find and obviously create. Don't be surprised if some farm projects end up on that blog too. My creative blog is called Liana's Creative Corner or lianascreativecorner.blogspot.com. :)

Signing out.

Lots of Love and warm fuzzies

Liana