Open Thread, October 3, 2020

Well, folks. The world still turns and gets stranger every single day. There are many people that daily outline the events taking place around us - political, criminal, availability of everything from food to ammo to canning supplies to baby chicks to anything, you name it. 

Right now, and all day everyday, we request your prayers beseeching the Almighty for the quick, total recovery of our President and his beloved First Lady, President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

The turmoil, unrest, and uncertainty of the future of our country appears to grow everyday. Every single day. There is something that happens, information that comes to light, or the placement of one more piece of a puzzle that is so deep and wide that it truly seems beyond the human mind to fathom.

So we step back, take a breath and attempt to decipher what is real, what is conjecture, opinion or outright lies and fabrications. Then we go outside and enjoy what we have been blessed with. A beautiful place to live. Flowers. Hummingbirds. The final harvesting of the garden. 

The sweet potatoes are dug and curing in the greenhouse. We grew three varieties to compare productivity and flavor. We will use those potatoes and plants for next year's crop.

The only other things left in the garden are okra and peppers, which are declining since we are already having lows in the 40's and 50's. The turnip greens are growing well, they like the cool weather. The spinach is trying to grow, something killed all of the lettuce and it needs to be replanted. Yes, we are still growing some food stuffs. But it's going to be an early winter this year, or so I have been feeling for about a month now. I would recommend you stock as deep as you can and prepare for a long, cold winter. Just a feeling.

We are canning chicken today. Baking the last dozen we had in the freezer and getting them all on the shelf. Next week we will start butchering our older laying hens to can as well. The young hens are laying well and we are over run with eggs. We also have another batch of young chicks that will start laying in January. So we have meat and eggs on the menu for part of a future food supply.

The goats are drying up. Three does are due in January. One more doesn't seem to be bred or show any indication of doing so. We don't know what is going on with her. Braum's (an ice cream store in our area) has started selling A2 milk which is a very pleasant surprise. Our vet is drinking it with great success. He hasn't been able to drink milk in years due to a gut issue. That proves to me that there really is something to the A1/A2 issue. We are buying milk from Braum's to get us to January and our own fresh supply again.

Just walking into a store now days is a strange, eerie experience. Half of the people look at each other like they are scared to be around anyone, another half is wearing masks and doesn't like the ones that aren't, the other half just tries to act normal, but hardly anyone talks. It's quiet and suspicious. I know that's three halves, but you'll just half to deal with it.  Just like living in this dystopian virus controlled world.

My mom is now on hospice and continues her slow steady decline. I haven't been able to go into the nursing home to see her since March 12th. It kills me to go see her through the window and not be able to touch her and hug her. Knowing there are hundreds or thousands of others in the same predicament doesn't make it any easier, but I am very empathetic to the pain it causes so many of us in these days and times. A person we know just lost a healthy, active parent with underlying conditions to this virus. It hits close to home since they were younger than Frank. 

Pray for our President and First Lady for there are those that take joy in their sickness. These people that wish our President and First Lady harm are part of the deep, entrenched, putrid, decay of our country. If they win the election, if they take over, we are doomed. If you are not prepared for either outcome, I fear for you. 

Please share what is going on in your neck of the woods. We are all in this together and we all need help from each other. Please share. Be safe. Stay healthy. Be extremely vigilant. Use discernment in all you read, watch and believe. Pray for guidance always.

Until next time - Fern

What's Growin' In the Garden 4

Well folks, it truly is turning out to be a hot summer, isn't it? Frank has long thought the unraveling of our society would come to pass about this time. The uncertainty of life affects us all in many different ways, even the earth is unsettled and behaving quite different. Gardens and pastures in these parts are not growing anything like they usually do. Some things do okay, not great, but okay. Other standard crops are barely growing or doing anything. I have found ONE squash bug this summer. ONE. By now they are normally here by the hundreds and the plants are dead. Instead, we have had many fewer yellow squash, but the plants are happy.

Today we pulled the beets and planted grocery store red potatoes. Yes, it's very late to plant potatoes and it's a toss up whether they will grow in the heat of the summer here. We weren't going to grow any at all, but feel the need to grow more calories and nutrition.

Old beet patch, one new potato patch

More potatoes between the cabbage & sunflowers

                Here is a look at the rest of the garden.

Parsley in the front, carrots and yellow squash

Sweet potatoes on  stock panels are growing well.

Pinto beans, some are climbing and some are not....

Tomatoes are growing slowly with little production

Purple hull peas after 4 plantings

Okra, barely growing, and it's mid June

Sunflowers for chicken feed

There are a number of cabbages that survived the worms.

Small pepper plants

Planted Thelma Sanders winter squash by wooden stakes today.

Apple with curculio infestation

I was very hopeful of a good fruit crop this year. Our young plums were loaded with fruit, but each had this little brown mark on it. Every plum dropped and now the apples are slowly joining in. I pick up half a dozen or so every other day as they fall and feed them to the chickens. I found a beneficial nematode that is supposed to help control curculio and applied them below the trees a month or so ago. My research indicates curculios may produce up to two generations per year, so I hope the nematodes are established enough to affect the second generation this summer. I don't know if there will be any apples left to harvest or not, only time will tell.

Rather dismal outlook, isn't it? It is definitely a strange growing season. As the COVID19 outbreak grew more serious, we decided to grow more food this year instead of less like we had planned. But the way the garden is performing, we don't know how much food it will produce at all. If we were truly in dire straits and dependent upon this growing season for survival, it would be a very stressful situation indeed. Well. What if this is it? What if our life does depend upon this harvest?

Folks, we are in perilous times. Do everything in your power to have enough food for your family for the long term. It matters not if you grow one morsel, have food for your family. Do everything in your power to provide a safe environment for your loved ones. Between the virus, the economy, the riots, the anger and hatred, our country is a pressure cooker just waiting for the lid to blow. The tentacles of the enemy are long and well camouflaged. Distance is your friend.

Frank has been saying for many months that it is going to be a very hot summer. The summer is upon us with burning and death. There are a couple of videos at the end of this article that may give you pause. If nothing else, I hope they give you something to think about.

Food. You can't have too much & without it you are dead.

Until next time - Fern

National Emergency - Jon McNaughton

        Speak Truth - A message that needs to be heard

A New Era of Individual Responsibility?

COVID19 will be a part of the world's vocabulary for many years to come. Discussions of the impact it has had on countries, cities, towns, neighborhoods and families will be ongoing for many years. We don't even know what those impacts will be, for they have yet to play out in real time. History in the making, right in front of our eyes.

If you or yours have suffered a loss as a result of this virus, our hearts and prayers to out to you. There have been many difficult situations and fears that have been heart breaking. I look forward to the time that I can go into the nursing home to see my mother again. Visiting through the window with someone in the advance stages of dementia is very difficult. She doesn't understand and it just breaks my heart.

After the initial scare of a raging pandemic that was predicted to kill millions and millions of people, leading to shortages at the store, and overwhelming the ability of the medical industry to cope, we are now in the stage of trying to regroup and regain a sense of normalcy. The resulting stay-at-home/lock down orders have highlighted some of the tendencies of governments to initiate and strengthen their desire to control the lives of the people they 'govern', showing they aren't in the position to serve the people, but to control them. Some of the serfs are not happy with this. Most of us initially complied under the false narrative of the severity of the virus and pending threat of death by a virus - the invisible enemy, President Trump calls it. 

But this isn't an analysis of the advice given to the President by his task force members that are also trying to roll out their own agendas of control. Personally, I think this has been a bioweapon unleashed upon the world as a backlash for leaders and countries backtracking from the One World Government and attempt to control everyone and every country in it. Control. Ultimate control of everyone through the monetary system, the food supply, medical attention, the ability to work and provide for the family. All of it. The whole package deal. Life. And everything that it entails.

No, this article isn't about that. You can read many different articles and opinions about those topics. This is about the changes some people appear to be making in their lives. For instance. Why are the Mom & Pop mail order chicken hatcheries unable to fulfill orders until late summer now? Why are seed companies out of seeds? Why are gun and ammo suppliers seeing record all time sales and shortages? There are shortages of radios - alternate forms of communication. Why are the shelves at the store that hold beans, rice, pasta, flour and other staples mostly empty? Why are the news stories on the mainstream sites showing how to make bread, how to bake, how to cook?

Frank and I have discussed for years that if just a tiny percentage of the population of our country woke up one day and realized they would run out of food, went to the store and bought enough for a week that the shelves would be empty. Then along came COVID19. And it happened. And it continues to happen. And the prices of everything are going up, except for oil and gasoline. It appears they will continue to go up. Excuses for that? Supply chain disruption, it's China's fault, it's...... It really doesn't matter what caused "it" and what is going to continue causing our new normal to unfold. The fact of the matter is the future will unfold whether we like it or not, vote for it or not, or deal with it or not.

Frank and I chose our life style decades ago. We have worked toward this level of self-sufficiency for a long time and have realized many of our dreams. Now we are working on new dreams, how to maintain as much independence as we can, as long as we can, while we 'grow' into old age. We are in a time of change in our lives. The parallel is that now the whole world is in a time of change with no real sense of the direction it will take. A true time of cognitive dissonance where normal has flown out the window, never to be seen again. Where did it go? How did it leave so fast? Amazing, isn't it?

Now people are searching for ways to manage, ways to provide for their families, ways to continue to be independent without leaning on the government, food banks, or other means of income. Will this lead to a new era of individual responsibility or an ever growing population that expects everything to be provided? 

The few times we have been out and about in a very limited fashion over the last month or so, we have noticed more garden spots. Some large, some small, some in tubs or buckets. We find that to be very encouraging. We have heard of some folks that are focusing more on food and provisions, for the time being anyway. Will it continue? Will this be a wake up call for some that priorities need to be changed and focused on the real things in life? I think once the restrictions are lifted there will be a rush to regain the old normal, only to find it no longer exists. Some behaviors will be driven by fear of the virus and the effects it will have. Government overreach in it's many facets will be here to stay unless people stand up and install those that would reverse the heavy handedness that has shown up in some areas. At this point, I would say the future is an open book with blank pages. If things are allowed to continue the way they have been going it's just a matter of time before we are all locked down, tracked, banned and told to sit back and shut up. But that's not my focus here.

Take stock of your shelves. How long will your food last if you could never buy one more scrap of food? Without Food, You are Dead. I wrote about it not long ago. Control of the food supply can and will control you. Period.

What can you do to supplement, stretch, extend your food supply to the maximum extent possible? What do you need to learn to increase that supply even more? We have been writing here on and off for a number of years about our attempts to grow food and raise animals to increase our self-sufficiency. If you haven't been reading here very long, check the list of articles and pages that may lead you to some information that may benefit you. Frank has written extensive articles on radio communications that will explain how to set up a network of communication for your family or area in case cell phones are down. There are many articles on gardening, raising goats, chickens and pigs. We have written about reusable products you can make, like the masks that are being made around the world right now. If you have questions, ask. We and other readers are always ready to share our experiences in the hopes it may help another.

We're all in this together folks. Some days it looks like we have fallen over the cliff of no return to soon crash at the bottom with a resounding thud. Other days? It just looks real dicey. We have yet to see if more serious food shortages and economic calamities are right around the corner. At this point, I think the virus is the least of our worries. I can only hope it is a new era of individual responsibility which will lead more people to step up and take care of their own instead of holding out their hand for more while they scream about someone not wearing a mask.

Pay attention. Take notice and take stock of your shelves and yourself. No one is coming to save you. If They show up at all, don't get on the bus.

Until next time - Fern



By the way. Does anyone know why some of the pictures in our last few articles have disappeared? All of them were taken at the same time, none were downloaded from the internet. I haven't researched the problem, it just wasn't that important to me. It may be a simple fix.

Our Normal Abnormal Life

In many ways, our life hasn't changed much. We milk goats, make cheese, plant the garden, eat at home and don't socialize. This is pretty normal for us. Now that I cannot visit my Mom in the nursing home except through the closed, glass door, which we did for the first time today, we seldom go anywhere. While we were in town today we went to the store. Frank stayed in the vehicle while I went in to get apples. I wore gloves and cleaned my hands with an alcohol soaked wash cloth when I was finished. I took note of some of the store shelves while I was in there. The produce section was fully stocked. There was very little pasta, no spaghetti sauce in jars or cans, and only a few cans of spaghetti-o kinds of foods. There were no dried beans or flour of any kind. Many of the canned vegetables were sparse. I didn't go down any other isles, so that is my report for the grocery store today. It is a smaller, local grocery, not the Wal-Mart type.

A few weeks ago we stocked up on animal feed, filling every container we have to the brim. That will last us well into summer if not beyond. We stocked up on fresh apples and cabbage, too, but that's about the only store bought items we wanted/needed. The new air lock version of making sauerkraut has taken a backseat to the fermenting crock again for now. Even though it will take us months to eat the full crock that is percolating away at the moment, that's okay. It's nice to know we have months of nutritious, probiotic kraut awaiting our dietary needs.

Most of our routines haven't changed, so here is a pictorial of some of the things we're doing during this normal/abnormal life. We're still making cheese and sourdough bread, although we have started making tortillas out of most of the bread dough, just because we like them. We eat them fresh everyday with a little butter and salt. The dough freezes and stores well in the frig, so I can take out what I need for each day, let it come to room temperature on the cabinet, then cook them when we are ready to eat. If we do happen to experience a collapse, making small, daily batches of dough for fresh tortillas will be easier than trying to bake bread or rolls. Just a thought I have had when we transitioned to making daily tortillas.

Bread dough in the bowl, cheddar cheese in the stock pots

Some of the seedlings are now in the garden. If we get a frost, we'll need to cover the tomatoes and squash. 

Seedlings hardening off from the greenhouse

Tomato seedlings

The large tomato that grew in the greenhouse over the winter.

Whey from cheese making to water in the tomato seedlings.

Tomato seedlings

Carrots

Yellow squash

It's been very wet and muddy for about a month now.

This week we had record high temperatures in the 90's. This weekend we will probably have a frost. It reminds me of the challenges farmers are having with the food supply and the issues with the solar minimum and how it affects weather extremes. The Ice Age Farmer is listed on our blog roll. He has some interesting things about the solar cycle and food supply. The pepper and beet seedlings will have to wait for the frost to pass to be planted.
 

Peppers

Beets on my planting wagon.

We thought a few more hoses were in order.

Frank used a garden hose to fill our storage tank from the water well by the greenhouse. We can use it for the garden or drinking water if necessary.

The world? Our country? Outside of the virus, the economy is on the verge of imploding. The effects of the virus don't appear to be near as devastating as the hysteria and overreach of the government indicates it was 'supposed' to be. There is some underlying sinister plot in play that hasn't raised it's ugly head into the light of day yet. When it does, I don't know if it will have the ugly head of a fire breathing dragon or the boot of the man upon our throats. It is difficult to find any clues or facts (how to know what is true or not is impossible anymore) that lead to any logical conclusions at all.

And then there are the 'essential workers' that have received their "papers" for safe travel to and from work. When I hear the term "Papers, please." it makes me think of a World War with major restrictions and controls upon the activities of societies across the globe. We know a man that received his "papers" a few weeks ago indicating he works in an essential industry, then received a comment recently with the same scenario. Is there a time coming when all travel will be restricted without official "papers"?

Phone apps are being developed to track people that have been infected, are suspected of being infected, have been vaccinated (once it becomes available) or haven't, and probably who is using all of that 'dirty' germ laden money. With many, many people staying home or drastically restricting their travel voluntarily due to fear, those that are out and about will be easier to track. Why is this really desirable? I don't really think it has anything to do with a disease.

So, we will continue to stay home, order a few things online to be delivered and continue our normal/abnormal life. There are times when the vision of what we see coming down the road is almost paralyzing. Other times, we continue our daily routine, just like any other spring, only with the feeling we need to keep an eye out over our shoulder for that sinister overshadowing that creeps ever closer. We used to say the storm is coming, get prepared. Now? The storm is here and it's too late.

We would really like to hear what you think and what is happening in your area. When it rains, it rains on all of us. We are all in this together. Speak up now while you still can. You never know when something you say may help another.

Until next time - Fern
 

We Were Born For Times Such as These

We had a very interesting comment the other day that said, "We were born for times such as these." That struck us at the time and has stuck with us.

You, all of you that read here, were born for times such as these. That's why we're here. That's why we write, that's why you write and share your thoughts and experiences, and try to get those around you to wake up and smell the collapse that is pounding them in the head. Where does that headache come from? The pounding of reality slamming into your head, you idiot. But then, it's too late for you to wake up and smell the collapse, notice all the shortages everywhere? Too late. The train has left the station and you missed it.

Just some observations from our neck of the woods and our personal analysis of all of the information.

Frank and I keep saying - there is something sinister going on that we're not able to see, read about or discern yet. Unfortunately, we may not be able to do so until it's out in the wide open staring us in the face.

Yesterday Frank looked around online to see if there were any rifles available that shoot 223 ammo. Most major sites were sold out of almost everything, even the Ruger 10/22 that shoots 22LR were sold out. 223 ammo? Forget it. Not available. There are some places that have the ammo, just no longer in bulk.

Some of the young family men we have talked to recently, both 30 somethings, are scared. They see the world falling apart, collapsing. They both have young children and wonder if they will be able to provide for them and protect them - from the virus and the violence of the world they see coming down the road. And did we mention shortages? You know, food.

The virus? There is so much conflicting information out there, who knows what is real and accurate. Are the numbers actually reflecting the number of people that died from the virus or from their underlying conditions? We don't have the statistics of people that die of the flu with underlying conditions because they died from the flu. We don't have the number of people that were tested for the flu, or strep throat, or any number of conditions and how many died or recovered. Those statistics are not kept and correlated. So what is real? 

The government is lying to us. We understand that there are times when the government needs to keep things from the public, that is understandable. But don't tell us that because a company that once in the past made ventilators, is going to retool in a number of days to manufacture complicated medical equipment. This is impossible. They're just blowing smoke up our skirts. Listen carefully, it is impossible.

Let's try on another lie for size. We need to get back to work as soon as we can. But, we're also told that the peak of this virus may not be for six more months. It's the government that shut down the work place and we're hearing stories of we'll be back to work by.......maybe Easter? Somebody, ladies and gentlemen doesn't know what the left hand is saying because the right hand didn't tell them. Somebody is lying. We've talked about it before here, lying has become the norm. We are being told things on a daily basis that we know is just not going to happen. They, the government, are the one that shut down business for our protection. Every day that we are shut down, will make it much, much more difficult to restart. It has taken our country a couple of hundred years to grow and develop the economic system we have. We have effectively crippled supply and demand. You can't restart this in a day or two. It is impossible. 

Who is going to pick the food? Who is going to can the food? Who is going to label the food? Who is going to drive the truck that carries the food? Who is going to maintain the truck? Where is that truck going to buy diesel? How is that truck driver going to eat on the open road? Who is going to stock the shelves, operate the cash register? And on, and on, and on. They are lying to us. There is something much more sinister going on here.

Why are the governments of the world shutting down the world?? What is really coming that needs to have the world population shut down, at home, contained? What is coming? Why do we all need to be so controlled? What is going to happen that would cause people everywhere to be out of control?

Food shortages?
Total economic collapse worldwide?
Anarchy?
Mass rioting?

How else could governments across the globe convince mass numbers of people to peacefully give up and sit at home awaiting the coming storm? Scare them to death with the threat of death, that's how. Not violent government take over kinds of death, but death by the invisible enemy. It's got everyone quaking in their boots. Literally. Yes, people are getting sick and dying and I mourn their loss. I mourn that I cannot go see my mother in the nursing home and I worry about her. 

We have voluntarily contained ourselves, curtailed our activities and in some cases our livelihoods. For what? Why do they need us locked down, in fear. Something truly evil roams the land.

Prepare accordingly, for the unprepared are going to take from the prepared. They will do it in an official manner, after all we are in a national emergency. Those of us that have prepared by the sweat of our brow, will now have it taken by the brown shirt thugs. They will take what is ours, mine, yours and give it to the fat, lazy and stupid.
 

Years ago we read about the golden hordes pouring out of the cities in search of food and trying to escape the violence erupting there. Is that what is going to happen? I don't know.





We're going to reopen the economy? When? How? What kinds of work can be deemed essential? Everything accept entertainment? 

Why do we have to wait for the FDA to approve a drug that's been on the market for decades? What kind of insanity is that?

Please chime in and and add your thoughts.

You were born for times such as these. Stand up to the plate and swing away. This is our time. This is why we have lived this life, prepared, trained and learned for decades.

This is your time. Make it count. Follow what your mind and heart gives you to do. Fight the good fight. It's what you were born to do. Prepare to do the unthinkable. It's here boys and girls.

Now we're going to go work in the garden. We have food to grow, for it's going to be a very, very hot summer and you can't print food.

We'll talk more later. Until next time - 

Frank & Fern

What are you doing NOW?

Hopefully, the holes in your supplies and preps are filled like Frank talked about in the last post.

We have all been reading/listening/watching the data and advice on how to avoid/diminish the chances of infection from COVID-19 and taking every precaution available to us. Some are still going to work, some aren't. So now what?

During President Trump's press conference yesterday [Monday, March 16th] one of the reporters asked him to reassure the American public. She said people are scared. How true. We all are. Not only are we worried about our own personal health, the health of our families and friends, but the nation and world as a whole. One thing is certain. When we see the other side of this, we being whoever is left, things will not be the same. We will not be living in the same world we left behind just a few short days ago.

The economies of the world are and will be changing. The manner in which people physically interact with each other will have changed. So many other aspects of life will be changed in ways we can't even begin to imagine or fathom at this point.

Frank and I have been describing events as 'unbelievable' for some time now. You know, our political sphere, the anger and division among the peoples of our nation, etc. We had a brief laugh yesterday when I reminded him of this, because the situation we find ourselves in NOW is truly UNBELIEVABLE!!

Frank has long thought some type of contagion or plague would be the mechanism TPTB use to bring down the world, bring down the population numbers. So far, the death rate from this virus has not greatly diminished the global population, but in the long run, will it? At the beginning I was one of the people saying the standard, run-of-the-mill flu was killing many, many more people, what's the big deal? Obviously, something is very, very different than the average flu or the whole world wouldn't be shutting down. 

So what are we doing? For one, we are not going anywhere except for a few select places in our general area. We have to go 25 miles to make it to a town that has a big box store, a pharmacy and regular grocery stores and we are just not going. We are stocking up on more animal feed.

We have baby chicks hatching and more coming in the mail in the next day or so.

The garden is tilled and partially planted with turnips, kale and cabbage. We have a few carrots out there that have overwintered. We are in a heavy rainy period, so it's mostly mud, but it's good, healthy, fertilized mud.

 












The tomatoes, peppers, carrot and beet seedlings are planted in the greenhouse. I cut the tops off of the large tomato plant that has been growing out there all winter and put them in water to root. I also ordered more seeds. Seeds are gold, better than gold. They represent more food. Food that may become more precious than any 'thing' we can have.

 

The garden? Well, with age and aches and pains, it was going to shrink quite a bit this year. Now? I have altered that plan quite a bit. I will be adding more human and animal crops to the garden in the hope we will have enough to eat.

We have revisited our plans if we lose power and water. They have changed somewhat over the last few years. And as always, we discuss the protection of our home and each other.

My thoughts go always to keeping us fed and healthy. Frank's are of protection and safety. We naturally focus on our own strengths, talents and areas of responsibility.

The uncertainty of our times and the outcome on the other side of this event, for lack of a better description, is a daunting experience. So, tell me, what do you see for our future six months from now? A year from now? What do you think the world will look like? Do you see riots and anarchy around the corner? Food shortages? There is a lot of hype about medical supplies/services being inadequate for a pandemic. 

Please share. What are you doing now? And what do you see for our future? I agree with President Trump. We're all in this together. 

Blessings to you all. Stay safe and healthy.

Fern

Homestead News, Volume 24

Life goes on here on the homestead, in the local area, in the country and in the world. Precarious though it may seem at times, the store shelves (here at least) are still filled with an abundance of frankenfood, the lights are still on and water still comes out of the tap when I turn it. 

We continue to adjust our lives for our current and future physical abilities while continuing to prepare our minds for what may be coming down the road one day. We have recently had two and a half acres of our ten acre pasture fenced off for our much smaller herd of goats. This still allows us to have four small pastures for animal rotation, but makes it much easier to manage. We are debating about trying to hire someone to brush hog the remaining acreage once a year, or listing it for sale. Our decision changes from day to day, so for now we are just going to let things settle. We are in no hurry.

Our four does - two adults, two kids

Buck and young wether

The eleven year old matriarch of our goat herd is no longer with us. One Stripe was part of the first herd we acquired when we moved here in 2008. She never met anyone she didn't like and loved to be petted. She gave us many babies, lots of milk and much affection. All of the does we have now are from her line. 

One Stripe

We also no longer have our wonderful Pearl. She was a one of a kind dog and we miss her. She was great with the goats and devoted to the two of us. We'll be dog-less for a while. We don't look forward to training another puppy, but one will come along again when the time is right.

Pearl

We're also preparing the acre surrounding the house for eventual use as pasture. When the day comes to really downsize the land, if we haven't already, we will sell the ten acres with the current barn. Then we will use this area around the chicken house for any pasture we may still want to use. It will maintain a couple of goats, although we would have to feed more hay year round.

In preparation for that we have had some overgrown brushy areas cleared out along with tons of pine needles.

This older storage shed has seen better days. We've been fighting a leaking roof for years. Now we're working on emptying it out so it can be moved out by a neighbor that wants it. In the process we are donating many things to a local church that works with individuals and families that are in recovery from alcohol and drugs. It's good to be able to pass on some things to people in need, but it's also difficult to start downsizing instead of building up. It's probably something most people go through as they age, and now it's our turn.

I have been making some simple cheeses since we are enjoying fresh goat milk again. I tried an herb cheese with onion and garlic, but it came out really strong. Frank doesn't even like to smell it. I tried a small wheel with fresh basil from the greenhouse a couple of days ago. We haven't tried it yet, but it smells much milder so I hope this wheel is edible.

 













As time goes on we find we eat less, quite a bit less. Our sauerkraut crock is wonderful, but is now too big. We recently got some air lock lids to make kraut by the jar. This is our first experiment. We had them in the pantry for a dark place, but I didn't remember to check on them, so I moved them into one of the kitchen cabinets. Two of the jars turned out fine, but the one that wasn't full didn't. I don't know if it was the amount of cabbage or if it was because we didn't include the rubber gasket in the lid when we put it all together. Another learning experience. It's always good to learn. I am going to try peppers this way this summer. I think that would be good. And maybe okra? I'm not sure if they will ferment/pickle very well. I will have to read more about that before I try it.

I have been working on a door hanging for my mother who is in the nursing home with dementia. She has been there for two and a half years now. I agree with all of the people that told me over a year ago that this is a very cruel disease. We pray for her peace and comfort every day, and I pray for her release from this world. I can usually still get her to smile and laugh. She even sang Happy Birthday to Frank (I got it on video on my phone) recently and she hadn't sang with me for months. It was very touching.

The greenhouse continues to feed us some nice green things a few times a week, and is now housing some seedlings, or the dirt that holds seeds that will soon be seedlings.

Two ages of cabbage seedlings

Will be carrots, tomatoes and peppers.

Carrots are just beginning to peek out.

Onions

I am going to cut the tops of these tomato plants, root them and start them in pots. I hope to get some big seedlings ready this way. We still have that one tomato that has been growing slowly all winter. I don't know if it's going to ripen or not. Frank thinks it will be really tough if it ever does.

 
















We are saving eggs to start the incubator tomorrow. These eggs will be hatching the same time the day old chicks we ordered will be arriving. We'll raise them all together, keep a replacement laying flock and butcher the rest. It's a good seasonal activity. Eggs to meat to the table. Wouldn't have it any other way.

For now, the garden lays fallow, but it won't be long before we will plant it once more. Hope is eternal when there is spring on the way.

Our country? The world? Viruses, plagues, pandemics, politics, food shortages, lies, corruption, greed? It just goes on and on and on. Every so often I get a small, tiny spark of hope that the world will keep on turning, people will come to their senses and we can continue to live in some semblance of peace, but then the next 'thing' appears and extinguishes that spark pretty quickly. So, life goes on. Until it doesn't. We do what we can and try to be realistic about what we can and can't do. We try not to play head games with ourselves and pretend we are going to go running through the woods chasing bad guys if the collapse occurs. Not going to happen. Reality. Sometimes difficult to deal with. Choosing not to? Not an option on our homestead. How are things going on yours?

Until next time - Fern