Progress in organizing minutiae

Minutia is a SINGLE small point or detail. The plural is "minutiae" meaning a collection of many such details.

Seriously, my house is falling apart around my ears with everything that needs to be fixed, attended, taken care of, washed, walked, milked, fed.....etc., etc.

So what was I up doing at 3 am this morning.....

Yup, that's right!  Separating and color coding.  I really should have taken a before picture.  Types were all together (brads, eyelets, snaps, photo turns) All the red & pinks were together in one slot.  Orange, yellow, cream, and light green in one, Other greens in another.  Purple and pinks together.  And as you see blue is only done to the types.

Ah...minutia!!

Running around town....

My phone died and I didn't take my camera.  Makes me mad because today I had a lunch date with my 95 year old Grandpa.  I really wanted to get some picture of him, too! We had such a good time.  I am finding out things about him that I had never heard about.  I wish I could bundle him up and move him out to the farm.  I've always wanted a multi-generational home. 

I also took Boy to the ortho....again!  That boy is rough on his teeth, popped a front bracket.  I suppose the blessing is that it always seems to happen on a Tuesday, and the Ortho is only in the office on Wednesday, so it works out.

One of my "jar" ladies lives 1/2 mile from the ortho, so took her jars.

Picked up feed.  100 pounds for the Rabbits, 100 pounds of SWEET FEED!, and 100 pounds of chicken feed.   Also soda for the people in the house.

Went to the cell phone store only to find out the battery is $40, to upgrade is $30 plus the cost of the phone (cheapest was $79-basic, not a smart phone!).  Checked Amazon in the middle of the night to find out I can get the battery for $2.54 NEW.  Um, yes please.

Picked up the picture of my counter damage for the crock pot company.  Will get that shipped off on Friday.

Then finally home, only to get the car stuck in the mud while unloading the 300 pounds of feed.  Car splattered with mud from top to bottom.  Boy did get it unstuck, but then I had to run to the car wash to spray off all the mud before it got down to 20* tonight and it froze to the car until spring....

Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic toast for dinner.

Whew...and no pictures. 
But here is one for your viewing enjoyment!  I love chickens! 

By the pond, that I don't have....

.....will be this shed / cabin (that I don't have!)

(I don't know the picture source or I would put it here!)

Man calls this my "Granny Clampett" cabin. I think it would make a nice little guest cottage by the pond (which is on my 101 list to dig...Boy and another 12 year old have offered to dig it for me!!)

So it's not MY picture...however it is my picture of the day!

Have a great one!

Really, Bess??

So this evening, Bessie was seriously not in the moo-oood to milk.  I managed to get 2 ounce...that I didn't keep because she was "dancing around", kicked the bucket not once but twice, and then finally put her foot right into the bucket....SIGH!

Follow Up Egg Picture....

 

It was a double yoker....and it was delish!!

Snow again!

The drive to town yesterday was a bit on the slippery side.  We ended up getting about 3 inches of snow here on the farm.  In this picture you can see the two cords of wood that we just had delivered last week....

 

OH, and an update on the laundry room curtain....I moved a digital thermometer into the laundry room. 

It's 22* outside, 68* in the den/kitchen..and 47.2* in the laundry room. 

Yes, I think that MUST have been why it was so hard to keep the downstairs warm.

Look what I did, yesterday....

All.Day.Long. 

When someone places their furniture order and requests paint....that's my job.  It takes me a long time for a variety of reasons.  I have various physical limitations and have to take lots of breaks.  I paint two layers on all six sides.  This doesn't really look like a lot here, but it's actually a really large order.  It took 12 hours to complete all of this:

 

I went to bed without looking in the mirror and woke up in the morning to stripes on my face, a "plop" in my hair, and big spot on my nose.  I was told that this should have been the picture of the day instead....I think not. :)

 

Finally EGGS!

We had a great month of eggs in December with an average of 12.1 eggs per day.  Then right after the new year...BAM....1 egg...4 eggs...no eggs....AAAHHH

 

So we tried all the different things we've read for getting eggs in the winter.  I'm not sure which worked, but something did.  Today I got 16 eggs.  We are back to getting between 10-16 eggs a day!  Yay!  Today is washing day. On Fridays, our homeschool group gets together for gym day, and it's farm "sharing" day

 

The funny thing about chickens is that if they "hold back" you may end up with a double yoke.  For those of you who are moms, you see this egg and say "ouch".  The egg next to it isn't a "Baby" egg, it would be considered extra large at the grocery store.

 

A boy and his Dog...

Boy and his pup, Danny enjoying the wood burner.

Cold...and Challenging

So after a 4* night, and milking at 4*, the 59* house seemed practically balmy....or not.

I spent the morning gathering supplies to try to "button up" the house a bit more.  After a run to Meijer to get a stall shower rod and a thermal curtain, it was time to close off the laundry room/mud room.  It was added on to the house around 1991 (had to put the 19 on the front as the house was actually built in 1884) and I don't think they thought much about insulation back there.  We call the little bathroom back there "the outhouse" because during the winter it is like going outside and sitting down on ice!

You would think this would be an easy task....but then you forget who was putting up the rod.  The new 'fangled' rods do not have springs inside, so I was completely perplexed as to how to make it stay up.  After retaping the ripped up instructions on the package (who looks at instructions--it's a tension rod!!) and conference calling with my cousin...finally it is up!

It looks a bit "Red-neck" but by after dinner it was a good 12 degrees colder in the laundry room.

I also added plastic to Boy's windows.  (will do the living room tomorrow).  Retaped the plastic in the den/office.  Covered the fresh air returns with cardboard.  And after chores, Boy and I wrestled the well pump off of the well lines and took it down to the cellar.  After 4 pump replacements (at $429 each time) I did not want another pump to freeze.  I'd rather haul water to the barn for another 2 months.

As we settled down to enjoy the warmer (64*) house, I decided to go to my electric blanket early.  I let the dogs out and usually they are right back in.  After 20 minutes I started yelling for Danny.  Kristl came back, no Danny.  Then I realized that I couldn't hear Iona barking.  GREAT!  Somehow she broke her cable (again) and the two of them were off on a runabout.  Luckily they do come back--usually at 2 am.  I am a worrier though and I stay up waiting.  I was also alarmed as what if the cable got tangled up in something in the woods??

I drove up and down the road a few times yelling out the window, but the 9* was a bit much so I went home to watch youtubes and pinterest while I waited.  At 10:30 I heard them come barking up the driveway.  YAY!  I could go to bed at a decent hour...until I went out to get Iona into the barn and the barn closed up.  Both of our white dogs STUNK....Stunk of SKUNK.  UG!!  So Iona just had to deal with her smell (I was going to have her sleep in the "outhouse bathroom" for the night, but she doesn't mind the cold and hates the house) but since she smelled, she went to the barn and then Danny got a Baking Soda/Peroxide Bath.  He is VERY white now!

Don't skunks hiberate??  More importantly, CAN I????

Bread Day

This picture of the day thing is a bit harder than I imagined.  My days are pretty routine (OK, my routine includes sitting under a cow-slightly different than other people's routine, but still....)

Every Monday and Thursday I bake bread.  I 'kinda' cheat that I put our Bessie milk, Mrs.Cluck'n'Run's eggs, and the freshly ground wheat into a bread machine for all the real work and rising.  I do the dough cycle and then pop it into pans for the final rise and baking.  Last week I also had to bake on Saturday, as one loaf went to our friends on Friday, and the whole other loaf was eaten Friday night.

 

Not my picture....

 

But this is what I would love to see (in sage green) when I look through my 'tastrope door.  Such high hopes....sigh.  I am so terribly disorganized!  And I know I have to "get rid of stuff" to get there....and I am so not that person.  In the meantime, though, does anyone know where I can find a shaggy rug like that in Sage Green?????

 

Meals for Friends

 

Friends of ours (the V's) had a baby on December 31st.  (Their 6th-bless them!)

So we took them a meal, they deserved it!!

Chicken / veggie / noodle Cassarole. YUM!

WallaceHomestead Chickens & Gravy.

I made one for them, one for us and one for a spare. 

One pan is a lot of food, especially for a small family like us. 

Ended up that my Boy's best friend, J. came home with us today after gym (different family), and then J.'s dad came to pick him up and started talking with Man out in the shop...and then next thing we knew it was 7:45 pm and everyone was starving...so they stayed for dinner.  YAY!  I didn't have to stress because everything was already ready and there was just the right amount!  Love it when that happens!

Farm Journal

For the most part, I keep track (or really, don't) of things on the backs of envelopes, random sheets of paper, post-it notes....or....my mind (Yup, that's just asking for something to be forgotten!)

One of my goals in my 101 was to keep track of my farm production / income / outgo in a more systemized way.  Now I could just do things the easy way and write it down.  Nah...how about a spreadsheet....that's ~almost~ complicated enough!  Let's reinvent the wheel...that's what we should do!

I decided to do something creative, and made a farm journal.  A few years ago, I made tons of these journals and sold them at craft shows.  Mostly they were Christmas planners and a few pregnancy planners / journals.  I even did a few wedding planners.  So I decided to make myself one.....

Just Beautiful....

Sunset this evening....

 

Resolved....

I have alot of goals that have to do with scrapbooking...in order to even start on ANY of that, I have to actually find my scrapbook / homeschool room.  It has become the "we don't know where to put it" or "it is grounded until further notice."  Or "Quick we have a customer coming over".  In other words...A MESS! 

Sadly, the closet is the most

orderly (and that is not saying much), so that's the only picture I will post. 

My cousin and I are doing an online challenge on getting our scrap stuff in order.  It starts today.

 

I'm going to do this!! 

HELP!!

See what happens?

I post twice in one day then don't get this next days up until two days later....

It was the last warm day today.  All the ducks and chickens were out free ranging and enjoying the puddles.

 

These are both Wallace Homestead hatchlings:

Runner Juvie, and Muscovy Juvie.

2 posts in one day??? WHAT?

I know, right?  What is this noise?

Anyway...my 'colie (aka City Mouse) came to visit me (Rea, Country Mouse) after Christmas.

It was way fun to read her post about my Every.day.Reality!

Check it out here

I love the pictures, but I think my favorite is the "rays of goodness" coming out of the milk fridge!

 

I know some of my "Jar Friends" may check out the blog occasionally and might like to see the process from someone else's view.

Sad...sad...crockpot...

As you may (or may not, I dunno) know...I LURVE my crockpot (s).

In fact, I tend to "love" them to their death.  I use my crockpot at LEAST once a week. (And this summer while helping out at my parents house, I used their crockpot at least once a week as well)  I have a little dipper, a 1970's 1 quart with removable crock.  A 5 quart round upright one, and an oval 7 quart.  The 7 quart one is only about 4 months old.  I got it because the 5 quart wasn't big enough, and I had killed the switch on the 6 quart that I had from Arizona (and I {Hearted} the most!).

 

After Christmas, I was making split pea soup (don't turn your nose up, my family really likes it!  And I get rave reviews on my bean soups even outside of my immediate family!)  Anywho....the back leg of the crockpot apparently melted.  Yikes!

 

And then the crockpot dropped and was sitting directly on the counter...Double Yikes!

And worse than that...on the power cord. Yup, melted to the metal.

 

So as much as I hate to post these pictures, it is what I took today.

SIGH.

No, my counter is not that dirty.  That is the burns on my counter.

 

The company is being very nice.  I called them and they were 'very concerned'.  Yeah, I'm guessing...a burnt down house would be BAD marketing!

So they sent a UPS label for me to send everything back to them.  I have to include a letter of what happened and pictures of the damage.  Then I'll find out what happens...I'm thinking a new crockpot! 

 

My Man has already been all over the internet searching for the best crockpot for me.  He said since it's probably one of the most used appliances in the kitchen that I should go for high end this time.  In the meantime....I haven't crock-potted in almost a month!! AAAK!

 

(And this was after the saga of my oven dying not once--but twice in the last 6 weeks.  Died 2 days before Thanksgiving and then again the second week of December--Man fixed it the first time, Boy fixed it the second.  Geez, me being visually impared for the month of December has gotten me really behind in blogging!)

 

Black Cat looking for milk.....can you tell how much we starve our cats?

 

It seems my life revolves around....

...this bovine!

 

It was warm enough today that I let the chickens and ducks out to free range. 

This is what it looked like on my path to the barn tonight:

 

In the barn, another "peaceable kingdom" picture. 

This sad rooster has been relagated to the barn.  His comb got all frostbitten and bloody on the first really, REALLY cold night.  Then the blood was covering his nose and air passages and he was making a terrible wheezing sound.  I was sure he was as good as dead, so I kept him in the barn away from the other chickens.....alas...two weeks later and he seems to be fine.  And started crowing again this morning.  This evening he was sitting on the stall wall behind the rabbits, and then Yellow Cat hopped down from the loft to see what was going on. 

 

 

Finally the view from the Barn as I finished up chores...

 

De-Christmas-ed

Well, I finally had to do it.  Christmas is over (But only for another 350 days!!)

I am only 3 days past my goal of getting this all taken care of.  But it's done and stored away in the cellar for another year.

And School is back in session!  Doesn't Boy look THRILLED??

Dinner last night

We had butternut squash from the WallaceHomestead Garden.  It was delish!

My dear cousin was...um...intrigued by how I was preparing it.  I don't take the time to try to cut it in half and clean it out and all that nonsense.  The shell is too hard anyway.  I just toss 'em in the oven at 350* then go out to chore.  45 minutes later, I come in to hear them steaming and whistling at me.  It makes a bit of a pocket between the skin and the meat, so I'm able to just peel it. (Carefully--it's hot--no joke!)

Then toss the pieces in a cassarole dish, add salt, pepper and bake for another 20 minutes-ish (while the rest of dinner is cooking-pork chops and sour cream "all-rotten" potatoes, and homemade bread-in the background)

Snow Surfing...

All the snow is coming down the roof and making a wave at the gutter..

AGGGHHH!  How am I supposed to get caught up with my 365, 101, etc if when I hit the "picture" button on Blogger...the "Browse" button doesn't come up.  I am not smart enough to figure out how to do it otherwise!  Crisis!! Crisis!!  Help!

UPDATE:  OK, still haven't figured out the problem in Internet Explorer, but can do it in Google Chrome...carry on!

A little bit of a cheat....

I missed uploading two of the pictures from the weekend....

1/4/13

My gorgeous, very pregnant cow enjoying the waning sun...

1/5/13

Courtesy of Boy: a sandpaper flower.

Enjoying the Sun

It's still a frosty 30*, but it is very sunny.

 

Bess apparently needs to boost her vitamin D...

She contentedly chewing cud despite all the grass being covered.  My DH Is (I think) hilarious.  He say's she appreciates the need for chilled milk!

Iona is loving the sun, too..

I love that face!!



My dad is all concerned that Bess doesn't have enough to eat, so I took some pictures of our hay supply so he knows that she will be fine:






I realized that 4 of our rabbits kindled in late November, but I haven't posted pictures

Niki and her 6 babies (I love the pointy ears!)

Pfernuessen and her 6 babies (delicious!)

Mopsy and her 6 babies.

Mopsy, Jr and her 6 babies. 

The one with the white spot may becoming part of our breeding program-

Her name is Flash.

 

 

Sadly last night, our banty chicken-Sassy-died.  I had brought her inside hoping she was just cold, but unfortunately, she is gone.

Oh, and the two bunnies that we were trying to sell have both gone to new homes!

Baby it's cold outside!

When I milked this morning it was 9*!!  Not even double digits.

BBRRRRRRRRRR!

 

Everything was so frosty!  I'm learning how to use some of the other settings on my camera this year (101 in 1001 #13) and will be posting my

 daily photo (Project 365 on 101 in 1001 #98) either here or on my Scraptastrophe Studio Blog (http://scraptastrophe.blogspot.com/) if you want to see what caught my attention each day.  It's another goal for me to be more diligent in posting to my blog(s).  Yes, actually there are 4.  This is the most active one though.  If you want to be on the others...welcome! (Blogging is actually #14, #66, #83, and indirectly # 86-with that many entries into the 101 list...it must be important.)

 

 

So I bet you've figured out that I am kicking the 101 list into high gear.  See I had 1001 days...2.75 years....And I've completed....uh...14.  Yeah...so now that there is less than 11 months left, and I owe the "not done" jar $10 for everything not completed (and I'm broke!)....and I realize most of these goals are not earth-shattering-life-will-stop-if-not-completed...and maybe they really aren't all that important. But...if I felt like it deserved to be on the list....maybe I should try just a bit harder.  I have already identified at least 5 that just are not going to happen...and that's OK.

I'm also working on my new 101 list for next New Years (#101), so if you have some good ideas, let me know!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!

Well, there is nothing like a new year to help you motivate yourself, eh?

My December was challenging, frightening and a blessing.

On December 2nd, while at the grocery store, I was suddenly struck with double vision.  After a hairy drive home, and an even hairier drive (in the dark) to the eye doctor, I quit driving.  It was not "visual".

Ensuing blood tests, visits to the neurologist, and an emergency MRI/MRA followed in the next few weeks.  I was blessed by many friends that came to our rescue and came all the way out to the farm to bring me into town as it was our businesses busiest time, and Man could only get away for limited times. 

There is still no definitive answer as to why I had the sudden onset of double vision.  Stroke and aneurysm has been ruled out.  My diabetes was suspected.  The most likelihood is that after a year of having dangerously low Vitamin D levels....I got a cow....and started drinking raw milk that my body could finally access the vitamin D.  At the same time, my doctor had me mega dosing Vitamin D.  Come to find out, it is a fat soluble vitamin (meaning that your body stores it as opposed to say vitamin C-water soluble) and you can become toxic...which I did.  Vitamin D levels are best between 40-90.

I was at 17 to 23 in all readings for a year and a half before.  Got the cow in July.  September reading was 20.  Mega dose started in October plus raw milk for 3 months..December 5th reading was 145.  So now I am only able to have very limited dairy from our sweet Bess, and am taking medicines to try to strip some of the Vitamin D out of my system.  Reading on December 20th was 130. 

In the week between the onset and the MRI results, there were many tears and fear.  Planning and readjusting of priorities. Praying on my behalf by more people than I can count.  Even typing this my heart clenches at the feelings it evokes. 

Some of my "jar" friends, generously came out to pick up the jars of goodness for the other ladies waiting for their weekly jars.  Meals were brought.  My boy was taken out by friends to have some Christmas time fun.  (Zoolights!!) I was blessed beyond measure. 

We have a new local church where we have been attending.  I was lifted up in prayer by the entire congregation (and now when I go, everyone knows my name even though I don't know theirs!!)  Our pastor's wife called every few days to see how things were.

I am humbled.  I am grateful.  I am still a bit freaked out.  And I have a sense of urgency that perhaps I should have had all along. This year is going to be about getting things in order.  Making sense of the chaos.  Of loving.  Of worshipping my Heavenly Father without measure.  

I've been blessed with crisis.