Busy Day In The Barn!

Today was quite the busy day! We have had our barn for quite a while and only managed to get one stall wall partially finished. Boo! We were going with concrete, but have decided to keep Flossies milk stall concrete, but the rest of the barn stalls will be wood.
We started as soon as we got done feeding this morning. Let me tell you,  Pud'nin was a  force to be reckoned with today! He was a man on a mission! Did I mention that it was like 20 degrees today?
First we started by taking down the old panels. That was kind of bittersweet as we had put them up when Ciskgo was sick and needed to be inside. We are so blessed that he has healed and is now such a peppy pants! But now the panels had to go to make way for nice sturdy stalls!

Pud'nin working hard! Yea, that IS his happy face! :)

Panels down, now ready for some real stalls!

Then we had to dig some holes. Sounds easy, right? In theory, it would be a breeze, but in reality it was terrible! The ground in the barn is harder than heck! I mean the posthole auger just sit there smoking. Literally! Spinning, spinning, going nowhere. Pud'nin was determined, so he gave the tractor more gas! It was screaming!!Still nothing...
We finally had to resort to an unsafe practice that I will not document and finally had two lovely round holes!

Gorgeous I tell you!

The cool thing about this is I actually got to operate the tractor! Yea, the lift, the gas, and the PTO! I was pretty nervous, but I managed to get it done with Pud'nin patiently explaining the steps. He was probably so sweet and patient because he knew he would shortly be behind that tractor, with me in the seat!
Then it was time to set the posts. We had two awesome helpers today and they were perfect! Not only were they big helpers, they also found a whole nest of eggs that some hen had hidden in the hay!

Pretty Little Farm Girl!

Steady! Of course, Payton and his silly face!

WooHoo!

Then add in some boards, and you have a stall! All we have left is the gate. I am so excited! Now we only have four more to go! This is actually on my 101 list so look at me go! We are going have that list knocked out in record time.

TaDa!!

Joshua giving it the once over!

Since Flossie is possibly due to calve in a few weeks, we could not have waited another minute. She is getting rounder and rounder by the day. She has not bagged up yet, but that can happen in a flash. I do feel so much better knowing that she will have a warm safe place to bring her little one into this world.

Look at that belly!

I really like the look of wooden barn stalls. They remind me of my grandfathers barn where he used to let us use the hand corn sheller. I loved watching all the yellow kernels falling down into the wooden box and then he would let us take a scoop to Midnight the pony. Those were some of the best times of my childhood. Helping on the farm and learning how to properly care for the animals has stuck with me. I really think that early exposure to the simple lifestyle is the reason that I love it so much now!
Well, there you have it, our day in a nutshell. Let me know what you think!

Let The Canning Begin!

I just love summer! The sunny days, warm nights! It is all just too wonderful after freezing our butts off all winter long. I personally think about gardening ALL winter long. From the time I gather that last veggie out of the garden I am thinking toward the next spring. I am not sure what it is, but gardening, canning, dehydrating and freezing all the bounty of summer is just the best thing ever!
This week has been dill pickles, Clifty and Kosher. Clifty pickles are ones that I made by mistake one year and we loved them, lol They are pretty salty and quite sour. But yummy!

Cucumbers!

All sliced up and in the jars

Yummy seasonings!

Here they are fresh out of the Water Bath Canner

 The last picture is the finished pickles made by Cayce! It was her first time canning with me! She Loved it, I may have created a monster! She is practically hovering over the cucumber vines waiting for them to get big enough to make more, LOL! I love sharing the canning bug with others, as it is such fun and the rewards are so tasty. It really makes me happy to be able to go to the pantry and grab a jar of summery goodness.
During the summer garden time is a time to family togetherness too. We all troop out to the garden every afternoon to pick all the yummy goodness. It is like a treasure hunt for cucumbers though, those little boogers are nearly invisible hidden under all those big green leaves!
Joy has her eye on a couple of juicy watermelons that are coming right along in the garden!

Joys picture of one of the watermelon babies

Another thing that has been going on here at the Backwards Homestead is Haying. If you have animals, they have to have something to eat during the winter too. Since horses and cows won't eat pickles, we have to head out the the hayfields and toil away until we have sweet smelling rolls of hay for them when the snow blows!

One of Pud'nins trusty tractors!

Lee driving along

HAY!

With all this work, we still have to have fun! Especially when it is a billion degrees outside! Our pool is going through a renovation stage, so we aren't even sure at this point if we are gona manage to get it up at all..So we had to improvise when a couple of the grand kiddos were toasty!

Brr!

Water troughs are the best!

Today will be more canning, and if I am lucky I will pick enough blackberries to make seedless preserves. Last year I made 24 jars of preserves and it didn't even last until Christmas! That is like the Clifty pickles, I guess. I made 32 jars and thought I might be done. BUT, we have already eaten 5 jars, so I might ought to make at least one more batch, lol These things are addictive! Salty, sour and all crispy. Nothing like a homemade pickle on a sandwich! 

I am so blessed to have had so many people in my life to teach me the skills I would need to be able to live a self sufficient lifestyle. I remember sitting with my MeMaw at her kitchen sink on a stool "helping" her do peaches and tomatoes. We sliced the peaches and then she put them out to dry on a sheet of tin in the sun. Now days people would have a stroke if someone even suggested doing anything like that! One year the peaches were so wormy that it took forever to get anything substantial, but she persevered, and that stuck with me. She told me that " Any was better then none!" I sure miss my Memaw, she was one of a kind!

My mom continued the tradition, and when my kiddos were small I would go to her house and we would have all day canning marathons, lol We would start early in the morning, going out to the dewy garden to get things gathered before it got too hot outside. Then we all worked together getting it into a bag or jar, which made it go faster. It was always a time of talking, joking and sometimes tears if someone was having a hard time with something in their lives.  

My kiddos were always right in the middle of it all, learning the process as soon as they could, lol Of course, sometimes it was a bit harder with all their help, like the time Katrina sat her hiney in the middle of our dishpan of corn, and took a bite out of every ear! 

Canning days were more than just a day to put up for winter, it was time to spend with the ones that you love! Maybe that is why I love it so much! With that being said, I better get up and get busy! Here on the Backwards Homestead, there is no rest for the weary!

Tuxedos,Strawberries, Window Boxes and A Dog With A Sense of Humor!

Things are pretty hectic here on the homestead. Out youngest will be getting married in July, and things are starting to get real. I have been in denial, since we just had the next to youngest get married last summer! These kids are trying their best to make Pud'nin and I old!
So, with that in mind, Pud'nin had to go get fitted for a tuxedo Yea, a tuxedo. For anyone who knows him, you know that he does NOT wear tuxedos! He rarely wears a shirt that is even in one piece. He is a jeans and sleeveless denim kinda guy. Just goes to show, this Dad will do anything for his kiddos. Even wear a monkey suit! But, I have to say, Pud'nin cleans up pretty good!

Nice!

Shiny shoes!

We also walked around the Mall checking out dresses, went to Hobby Lobby and ate dinner with Mom, Katrina and Joy. THEN, we came home just in time to watch Kaeli play basketball in her Intramural games. She did AWESOME!! My phone was dead, so I didn't get any pictures. If I get a few I will post them so you can see her cuteness. She really was a force to be reckoned with on the court.
It was quite a busy day! Fun in so many ways, but still, by last night I was more than ready to go to bed, lol
Today, was a new day. It was sunny and the temperatures were perfect. Of course the normal chores were still there! Flossie has been losing quite a bit of weight and we were thinking it was Ellie being such a piggy. But we noticed today that her hay roll was packed so hard that she could not tear any off and eat it during the day! I am heartbroken! Of course she still gets a lot of stuff to eat other than that roll of hay, but still, I feel like a bad cow mom! Tomorrow we will take that roll out, and replace it with one that is not hard as a rock! I also have to go get feed tomorrow so I will get her some Alfalfa cubes to help her with her nutrition. Even though she still gets 3 huge coffee cans of 16% feed twice a day, plus about 4 to 5 flakes of Bermuda hay at night, she needs hay during the day!

That is the offending hay roll in the background!

After my morning animal chores, I weeded the strawberry bed. I am a bit sad that it is not spreading like I had hoped. Still a good stand of plants and I cannot wait until the berries are ripe and ready! Freezer Jam here I come!

Oooooh Berries!

The window box that Pud'nin made me for the barn is now up and bloomy! He did such a good job, and it was such a sweet surprise. I love flowers and maybe with it being up in the air little Miss Jayne will not dig all the flowers out, lol That doggy is the flowerocolypse! Here is the flower box in all its cuteness.

Pretty!

We also checked the eggs in the incubator and out of 9 dozen eggs we only had about 6 that were not viable. Woot! So in about 2 weeks we are going to have little fluffballs popping out everywhere. I can't wait. Baby chickens are just too darn cute. We are really hoping that we will be able to turn this into a money making project. Wouldn't that be awesome!?
The seeds I planted are sprouting and looking all healthy and green. I cannot wait until it is time to get the garden ready and start planting. I absolutely love summer and all the fresh fruits and veggies. We are out of several yummies and I need to restock the pantry!

Squash

Peeking out of the dirt!

Now, about that dog with a sense of humor. Let me tell you, just because you feed a dog every day, let them in and deal with their terrible gas, do not think they will cut you any slack at all..they will not. I was sitting out in the yard, enjoying the sunshine under the peach trees. Then, without any warning at all, It happens!! Trina yells for me to LOOK OUT! I turn around, and THIS is what I see!!

WHAAAAT!!

That is exactly what it looks like! Ace, was PEEING in the tree I was sitting by! Of all the nerve! Only I, have a dog, that will literally pee right on me! Luckily Trina yelled, and I was able to jump out of the way of the waterworks. Of course, I did whip around and take this quick picture, because after all. without pictures it didn't happen!
That about sums it up here on the Backwards Homestead. I am so blessed to be able to live out here in the country, surrounded by nature. This life can be hard, and the hours are long, but I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

Sunny Morning

Today was really sunny which was really nice! Even if it is freezy cold! The animals are beginning to look much better with the warmer temperatures, and also getting a bit of Spring fever. Funny how a little sun can make you feel so much better! Wilbur is settling in nicely, and he is even having quite a bit of interest in Charlotte. (Ahem). lol She is not quite ready to make things facebook official yet, and is giving him a bit of the cold shoulder. I imagine if things go well, and Wilbur can manage to woo Charlotte successfully, we will have piglets by August at the latest. Cross your fingers!
Here they were at breakfast waiting for me to serve it up! He was chasing her around when we arrived, but nothing like a bowl of corn to postpone romance! As you can see, they were not as gentle on their feed bowl as I would have liked. Getting in their pen and fixing their pan twice a day is getting old! Especially when you have to go in with two rather massive piggies. Let me tell you, when they were named LARGE Blacks, they were not kidding, lol

Flossie was all itchy from all her winter hair coming off. She decided to have a scratch on her hay roll! Can we say eww! Who wants hair in their hay? Not me! Right now she looks all splotchy and almost mangy! I brushed and brushed her yesterday, so maybe soon she will be all sleek and smooth.

You also get a pic of Ellies booty! Darn calf, should have cropped that out, but such is farm life. :) The rest of the cows come up and visit with Flossie and Eleanor every day. I would let Flossie out in the pasture, but I am worried that Ellie might be a booger to catch, and Twist might not be too welcoming either. Hopefully we will have a pen for Ellie when it is time to separate her from Flossie, and then we can start training her to be a calm and obedient milker when she grows up! She sure is looking lovely, all stocky and full of energy. I must say, she is one of the prettiest calves we have had here on the farm. I am quite proud of Flossie and Mr. MooGurgles, they made a fine little baby! Here the others are visiting.

Here is Ellie in her Cameo, all vogue and glamorous! Hasn't she grown!

Porter was out of the family picture this morning, he was busy getting a big drink of water. He has really come out of the winter looking fine and fit. I was a bit worried this last winter when it was so darn cold. He was only about 5-6 months old when winter started, and the other cows were not as accommodating as they could have been. He was basically the outcast,:( Now he is one of the herd and is growing quite fast!

Pud'nin and I also had some big helpers this morning, or should I say some new livestock! Here they are looking of of the trailer.

 

Look out, they can be wild!!

Payton looking through a piece of ice that was on the water trough, Cool!

Kaelis face when Grandpa was telling her that all the straw in the compost pile was what they made Mini Wheats out of...Really Grandpa?!

Here are a couple more pictures of my helpers. Even Blu thought he would get in on the action! But I will say, he was probably hoping for a bowl of milk. But, these days Eleanor is getting the bulk of that, so he will just have to wait until this afternoon! Jayne was off chasing squirrels, so I will have to try and snap a picture of her today too, but let me tell you, the camera has to be fast to capture that girl! She is a fireball!
I know that I am really enjoying this sunny weather! Stay tuned, before you know it I will be starting the garden and getting the new chicken pens ready for our new projects! I know I can't wait!