Are things looking up?

Well, it has been a few months since my last blog.  Just haven't been in the mood to type anything.  Since February, we did take a cheap vacation that didn't turn out so well.  My husband did get a job - that he absolutely hates - they treat him like poop.  He's been in the hospital with a serious bacterial infection.  We adopted 3 horses.  I had a job interview on June 10th and made it to the 2nd round.  That round won't happen until a certain person gets back from vacation on Monday.  I am so hoping I get this job.  It is only 6 miles from my house and it's 8-5 most of the time instead of 10-7 with an hour commute each way.  This company also offers full benefits - which means hubby could quit his job and go into the hay cutting business that he wants to do.  I know - a lot of risk, but it could be worth it.  He and a neighbor are working on the detail.  We took our 12 acre field out of the CRP program - wasn't happy with the requirement to spray Monsanto's Round-up products - they make enough money poisoning our food supply and I'm not going to help them.

We are currently babysitting a friend's puppy while they are vacation for the 2nd time this year.  He's a sweet puppy, but he keeps pooping in my bedroom - even after we take him outside.  Frustrating - thought I was past the puppy phase of having dogs!

I am currently bottle feeding 2 orphan rabbits.  Their mama is a Red San Juan mix, but refused to care for her litter of 8.  These 2 are the only ones left - they are almost 4 weeks old now.  Starting to reject the formula because they are eating grass, pellets and carrots.  I have installed a water bottle for them, too.  I guess I am adding 2 more pets to the herd as I told my hubby that they were not getting sold and they were not going in the freezer.  He just frowned. I've worked way too hard to keep them alive thus far. Going to try to figure out to build a hutch for them with scraps and a little farmgirl ingenuity.  We'll see what happens.

I failed miserably with my seed starting this year.  Oh - it started out great, until I put them outside to harden off and I forgot about them until about 2 weeks later.  They were certainly crispy.  Oh well.  We have direct sowed many other seeds and things are growing.  We have some volunteer pumpkins coming up in some very strange places, too.

Hubby built 4 raised beds for me.  He also built 2 stalls in the barn and we are going to start on a 3rd one this weekend.  My 2 year old horse is at the trainers for the month and so we have put off building it.  We put the 10 year old in his stall and the 15 year old in her own custom built stall.  She's only 28 inches tall so everything had to be built to scale for her.  Seems to working.

That's it for today - getting ready to head home from work.  Yes - I did this while at work.  I can do things like this while at work because we are a very slow store.  As long as we help customers when they walk in, the boss doesn't really care what we do.  That's one thing I will miss.  See ya' next time.

It's Raining

Okay, so its raining. Big deal right? Well this rain is a good rain. It's gentle, albeit heavy at times. Still it's not blowing and its not cold. I like this kind of rain. Its a good soaking rain, which is great because we didn't have that much snow in Central Indiana this year. I had planned on planting early Spring veggies this weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen. The ground will be to wet. Bummer on that. I'm not too worried though, since the almanac says we might some more snow in mid-April. I just hope it doesn't hurt the trees. They are all flowering and leafing out since we have had such warm weather.

Still deciding

I have been looking through all of my seed catalogs and even looking online, but I have such a hard time deciding what to grow. I plan on growing all the usual things like green beans, corn, onion, beets, carrots and tomatoes, but I can't decide which kind to plant. I love trying new things, but I like the old standbys too. AND my time is going to be severely limited this year due to already discussed issues.

I had saved a bunch of seeds from last years harvest, but they were lost. I found a few still in the jars, but I have no idea if they will grow or not. I am going to plant a tray with a few to see if they will even germinate. Hoping to do that this Saturday in the basement. Still trying to figure out a way to keep the felines out of the mix. I have one kitty, Albert, who is especially nosy. He's a handful that's for sure.

I was talking to my husband last night after watching part of a show on Nat Geo about "preppers". I told him we needed to at least think about a disaster plan. And since everything we did have stored was lost - we have to start all over. Here's what we came up with. We are planning on putting metal trash cans inside plastic trash cans to store some things like matches, candles, lamp oil, you know the basics. Why the two different cans? Well the plastic ones will keep out water, but since they can be chewed thru - the metal will keep out the critters. The plastic one will keep the metal can from being exposed to water and thus rust. I want to have a supply can in every building on the farm. That way if one is compromised, we have a back up. Always good to have a plan b. I am hoping that I can get a few extra seeds this year to start a survival garden if needed. It wouldn't have done us any good to store the seeds in the freezer like the guy on t.v. last night because of the fire. We will keep on researching and learning about storing viable seeds. Water would be our main concern. We have a well, but the only way to get the water out is with an electric pump. We are going to look at installing a hand pump for emergencies. Rain water is currently an option, however, if there should ever be nuclear fall out - it would make the rain toxic. It's scary to think of all the things that could happen!

New Seed Catalogs

I can hardly stand it. New seed catalogs are spread around on the floor near my chair in the living room. I am getting overwhelmed by all the choices I have. AND there's even more choices online! What's a girl to do? I am going to have to narrow it down quickly so that I can get my seeds ordered. The sooner they get here the sooner I can start them in the basement. It's cool down there, but warm enough for germination. I am going to have to get another grow light. I had one that I bought last winter, but it was lost in the house fire. Bummer.

My biggest problem is going to be getting the 2 cats to stay out of my indoor green house! Last year I started seeds in the kitchen on the table that we never actually ate at. I had the UV light mounted from my hanging pots/pans rack. Talk about a redneck set up! I had little mini greenhouses made out of the covered trays that come from Subway (yummy!). I snagged those from work when they bought our dinners from time to time.

However, there were a few baking pans that didn't have lids and the kitties jumped on the table and ate whatever was sprouting like it was their own personal salad bar! I tried planting cat grass in a pot in another room to try to keep them away from my plants. They ate that too.

This year I think I will use one of the those multi-level drying racks for sweater and things. I can put plexi glass or something over the slats to keep things from falling thru. Using clear material will also allow more light to filter down. I will have to rotate planters to keep things growing evenly. I can then cover the whole thing with a clear drop cloth or plastic to keep the furry beasts out.... Sounds like a whole lot of work to me. Oh HONEY.... I need you to build something for me!

Meanwhile I will continue to dream about my garden to be. I can see it now. Rows of green beans, peas, carrots, radishes, more green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, corn, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins. Don't forget about the flowers and herbs. A complete kitchen garden and a perennial flower bed that borders the house! Oh wait, there isn't a house yet. Okay so the flowers may have to wait until NEXT year. I can dream can't I?!

Greetings from Alex!

I tried to post last night but the server failed (again). I am loving the MaryJanesFarm.org site. It's heavenly. I have learned so much and am learning more everyday.

I would like to take a stand tonight about our food and where it comes from. Did you know that MONSANTO is trying to control our seeds? In a nutshell, they want to make it illegal for seed banks to sell organic seeds. They want to be the only provider of seeds to the world. They already have seeds that will not germinate if you save them, so that means you have to buy more of their seeds the next growing season. What a crock. MONSANTO can kiss my big rosey red behind. To them I say "You will not tell me I can not save seeds. You will not tell me what food I can grow. If you think you can, you are wrong and can go straight to hell!" Please go to MaryJanesFarms.org and look up the "Danger of Extinction" thread. It is so important. This is our food, people. Still don't know how dangerous MONSANTO is? They invented PCB's and Agent Orange. Need I say more?

Now some other things I need to vent about.
1. Our roof. 3 years ago we hired a contractor to put a new roof on. It has leaked ever since. He came out several times and slapped some crap on the roof but it didn't help. I think it made it worse. I filed suit and it is still pending. I have mold growing from my bedroom walls and ceiling, my walk in closet ceiling and my bathroom ceiling. I have since hired another company to proceed with the repairs, but the mortgage company is dragging their feet. Yes, I had to get a mortgage on a house that was completely paid for to get the roof fixed. Doesn't that suck? Here's why: To take off the new crappy roof, put in new insulation, new decking, and standing seam steel, gut the bedroom, closet and bathroom, repair other places in the house, remove everything from the house and demold it, demold the house, carpet included is going to cost around $60,000. All that for a $7000 roof that ended up costing $16000 because of Hurricane Katrina (at least that's what he said). Had to pay it - he had the old roof and decking completely off the house when he raised the price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have to move out of our home into a camper for 1 1/2 months to 4 months while this is going on. The camper is borrowed from a co-workers brother (God bless them). I am dreading it though. We have 2 dogs, 1 inside cat, and 3 of us. We can't feasibly leave the property because of the livestock.
After new contractor and his crew (Servicemaster) clean our belongings, they will be stored in a POD in our front yard until we can move back in.

All of this was supposed to be done over the summer while our son was not in school. Now it looks like we may be spending our Christmas in a camper in front of the garage. I am trying to see the bright side of this, but haven't been able to get through the crap stuck on the glass.


2. IVY TECH college. I was supposed be taking classes this fall, but since IVYTECH changed data bases, they lost just about everyone's financial aid info, mine included. No classes for me. I may never get that nursing degree!

3. Work. Need I say more? Sure - I drive a squad car that has 161,000+ miles on it. I have the highest miles in the district so I've been told. They have supposedly ordered new cars, but they won't be in for 60 days then they have to be "put together". Given that time line I am guessing I will have about 167,000 miles racked up. My last car quit about 168,000.
I have a pair of uniform pants with a hole in the back pocket. Hope I don't have a complete blow out while inspecting a truck!! I have another pair with white paint that I have colored over with a black marker to hide right in the middle of the butt seam. That's what I get for holding the door for one of my elders, huh. Thanks to the painter at McDonald North in Anderson for that. They didn't have any wet paint signs posted and I didn't see that it was wet.

4. I sincerely hope WAMU goes under!!

5. Medicaid. Wow that's a touchy one. I work for the ISP and still my son qualifies for this benefit. That's sad. However, the lady at the office is being rather pushy. She called last week and wanted us to get some papers filled out by his psychitrist as to the extent of his condition. And she wanted it done before she called about it!!! When I took the papers up to the doctor's office to get this done, the dr. said he would not fill them out because they were for a medical doctor, not a psychitrist to fill out. Ok - now what ms. medicaid lady?


I'm done for tonight. There's more, but it can wait!!