Another trip to the hospital

I think we are keeping the hospital in business.  Hannah had worked this morning till 11 am  and she came back home.  I had been up about all night with my knee hurting from the fall I took last week, trying to get our little cousin out of the barn when Hannah's market steer got loose.  I had broke down and took a muscle relaxer to see if it would easy the pain some, so I could get a little sleep.   After she got back from working, I laid back down and fell a sleep, next thing I know she is coming though the house crying and all upset, I think Cowboy( her barrel horse) just broke my nose, she said.  I got up, half a sleep, and went to her, blood pouring from her nose, she is crying and shaking.   I had to call my aunt and uncle to take us to the ER.

We get to the ER, sign in and they take her right back. They did a CT Scan and sure enough, her nose was broke in two places.  Luckily she has no facial fractures but she is in pain and having trouble breathing though her nose.  I am sure she will have plenty of bruising.   They gave her some pain meds, and she will need to see an ENT doctor, to set her nose.

I think, it happened so fast, she really don't know what happen.  But she was putting on the breast collar and she clipping it underneath and we figured when she bend down to clip the straps, he must have kicked at a fly or something and got her in the nose.   If he would have kicked her from behind it probably would have been a lot worse.  She a pretty tough cowgirl.   This is the second time she has been kicked in the face by a horse.  First time, she was around 2yrs old and baby horse(a small pony) kicked her, slight facture to the jawbone, four stitches to outside of her mouth and over 25 stitches on the inside of her mouth.

One thing living on farm and being around large animals, you have a chance of getting hurt.  You never know what one might do.    Cowboy is about 16 hands high, probably around 1200 or more lbs, and gentle as they come, but flies bothers him and kicks them.   Big ole horseflies  hurt when they bite.

A simpler life

One of the things we are working on is getting back to a simpler life.   We are always looking for ways to make life on the farm, simpler and easier to do.   Farm work gets harder on us as we get older, but it is hard to just give up something you were raised up doing, hard to get it out of your blood.  We enjoy living on a farm, it is hard work a times,  but I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life.  My husband does work a full-time job and he does work out-of-town alot.  When he is out-of-town working, leaves all the work up to the kids and me to do.

I look forward to the time when he is retired and we can enjoy the farm more.  I would love for us to go back, to like things were when we was growing up.  Wish our kids could experience it.   I remember going to bed at night in the summer time, windows opened up, front door open with the just screen door. You could feel the nice cool air coming in and hear the frogs, and owls at night.  So peaceful and relaxing.   Just sitting on the front porch during a rain, and listening to it the hit the tin roof.  We still get to enjoy that.  Sitting on porch in the swing watching the rain.  I miss the days my mamaw would spend all day baking pies, and the smell of them baking.  She made the best pies.  She always told me to learn to make pies, cause one day I would marry a man who loves pies.  She was right, I did marry a man who loves pies, but he also loves cakes and cobblers too.   I did learn to make pies, not as good as hers, but my hubby like them.

I hope I can share with you all our journey to living a more simpler farm life.   I'm new to blogging, and I'm still trying to figure it all out.   I would love to share recipes, canning, baking, sewing, farm work and animals and how we do these things with you all.

Black raspberry dumplins for dinner.

  My uncle brought me up some nice zuchinni from his garden today, and I thought fried zucchini would be good for dinner, then I remember about the big bowl full  of black raspberries in the frig that our daughter had picked a couple of days ago.  Then I thought, raspberry dumplins, fried zucchini, fried taters, cucumber and onions would make a really good dinner.    When I make dumplins, I always make the fluffy kind, that is what our family likes the best. 

I start my raspberries in a pot cover with water.  Usually about half way up.  I add a cup of sugar.   Sorry I didn't measure anything. I have made dumplins like this for a long time and I can pretty well guess everything.  Then I bring them to a boil and let them cook down, then I add my dough for the dumplins.   I use self-rising flour, egg, couple tbsp of sugar, and milk.  Mix well and then drop in the  pot  by the spoonful.   Cover and don't remove the lid at all, until you time is up.  I turn down the heat and cook for 14 mins.   My grandmother always said the secret to fluffy dumplins is to not remove you lid while they are cooking even if stuff is boiling out from the lid.   She said if you take the lid off before you time is up, you will have blue dumplins.  Why she called them that I have no clue, but your dumplins will be tough.   So I have always done what she said to do.   She sure made a lot of dumplins in her time. 

Here they are done.  I had just removed them from the stove. 

Frying up some tators, with onions.   I add salt, pepper and some Mrs. Dash seasoning all to taste.  

Fried tators and onions done. 

I sliced up some zucchini, coated in oil with a little milk, then rolled in cornmeal,( I like a course ground meal, taste so much better) and  fried them up in my electric skillet.   

Fried zucchini. 

Cucumbers and onions.  When to the garden today and 

 was able to find some nice cucumbers.  Decide to cut them up and added onions, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Added a little water and sugar.  Love to eat them this way. 

 Yum, dinner. 

injury on the farm

I took a good hard fall today and I think I have messed my knee up.   I'm in  a lot of pain and can't bend it.   I can get hurt the most on the farm.   I don't know how many times the horses has stepped on my right foot, or the pigs.  I have dropped pieces of firewood on my right foot several times.  Of course, my husband, doesn't cut small pieces of wood for the wood burner(it is an outside burner) they are huge and sometimes all I can do to lift on them.  I think, I need steel toe boots, when working with the animals and the firewood.  

But back to the knee injury today.   I had helped my daughter bath her 4h market steer and my husband had lead him back to the barn for us.  I had my little cousin Maddi with me and he just tied the steer up in the barn.  My husband had left to go get the chute and bring it back to the barn.   The steer kept moving and jerking around, and I told Maddi, I said, Lets move closer to the entry and if he gets loose you run a fast as you can into the old barn.  No sooner I told her that, he gets loose and starts jumping and kicking and I start running with her to get her out of the barn cause I didn't want her hurt.  It was just like in a horror movie, you know when running from the killer, we both tripped in fell in the mud. It happened so fast, I didn't really know what happen, other than I was in a lot of pain. I looked up to make sure the steer wasn't coming out the gate to run over us.  I got her up and moved her around to the side of the barn. I hurried and shut the gate on the barn entry and then went to the other end of the barn to shut those gates.  I knew if he got out, he would have been a bear to catch and probably went through everyones gardens.  Bad enough the evening before my daughter was in the barn and she had just got on her one horse she is working with, he spooked and reared up with her and she fell off and he took out the barn and right through my cousin's garden.  Luckily she was okay and not hurt.  She a pretty tough cowgirl.  But anyway, by the time I got around to the other end of the barn, he had found some hay and was chowing down on it.  

So here I am, covered in mud and can't hardly walk.  Yeah, I am sure it was a funny sight to see.  But it looks like a trip to the doctor tomorrow.  I know she loves when I come in to see her.   Last injury I had, I had messed my shoulder up helping a young buck out of a fence he had got trapped in.  I was trying to pull him out, up a muddy embarkment, my feet slid out from underneath me and I fell.  Already have a tear in my shoulder and have to go every so often for shots,  My shoulder was already hurting and pulling on that deer didn't help.   I couldn't get him and we ended up calling for help.  We came back through he was gone so they must have gotten him out. 

Then a couple weeks ago, we were working on the pig lot and had the post hole diggers on the back of the tractor and I was pushing on it and my shirt got caught in the shaft and it ripped my shirt right off me.  Scared my poor hubby to death   Never seen him move so fast.  He thought it had caught my arm.    

Always something going on here,  Never a dull moment.    I just hope and pray my knee is okay, I have so much to do and it is almost canning time. 

Talking to old timers

One thing I wish I had done was kept a journal growing up on how-to-do things.   It was a lot easier for me to remember things when I was younger but the older I get, my memory, just isn't as good.  I wish I had wrote down the stories I had heard from my grandparents, and some of my older neighbors, who are all gone now, but was full of knowledge and how to do things the old ways.  I have decided that some of the old timers who are still around, I'm going to go talk to them and ask questions about things, I have even thought about going some nursing homes and talk to some of the residents and write down what they tell me.

Being raise on a farm by my grandparents, I learned a lot.   Every year, we would follow the same schedule.  Starting in March-November.     I remember my grandmother would start her spring cleaning and everything got cleaned.    She would open all the windows so the house could air out.  On a warm sunny day, she would take all the mattress off the beds and set them out on the porch so the could air out as well.   Windows were all washed down, inside and out.  All the walls was washed down, light fixtures cleaned, floors scrubber, closets cleaned out, etc.  

My papaw and uncle would start their burning off of the tobacco, getting them ready to sow tobacco seeds, then later on, having to go pull plants for setting.  I can remember being little and following behind the setter and if they missed a spot, setting the plant in the ground for them.  I always went barefoot, did for years, the ground would be so hot sometimes, but I loved the feel of the dirt between my toes, still do.  I still go barefoot in the garden. Then came suckering time, cutting time, I never got to cut the tobacco, but I would help to get it in the barn, help strip it and  bale it.   Then in November my uncle and papaw would take it off to the market.  I miss the days of working in tobacco, I miss being able to spent the time with my family talking and telling stories.    You learned a lot more than just raising tobacco.

I remember my grandparents burning off the lettuce bed, and planting their garden.  My grandmother canned everything.  She hated to see anything go to waste in the garden.  After the garden was planted, she would go through her canning, anything that was old or jars that had came open, she would empty her jars out and soak them in a big ole wash tub.  Get them cleaned up and ready to go for that years canning.

I could go on and on, but I will save some stories for later on.   If you have the time, find some old timers and talk to them, write down what you learn.    So much more I want to learn about the old ways.   I think, we are going to have to go back to some of the old ways.  We need to learn while we can.

Little update on the farm.

Over the weekend, we added some guinea keets, turkey poults, and some ducks.  We also have the pheasants  and  salmon favorelles chicks.    The pheasants are growing and doing good.  So far, they have been pretty easy to raise, course we have only had them  a week now.  We do have to keep the pheasants away from the chickens, cause they can get a disease called blackhead disease from chickens.   All of my chickens are pretty healthy, so  I'm not too worry about it.  We do have them separate from chickens, and ducks.  We also added, sebright bantams.  I love little bannies.   We have some eggs in the incubator, slowly but surely building  our flock back up.

sebrights 

salmon favorells

guinea keets and turkey poults

pheasants

Old Ben

I wanted to share the story of Old Ben and some pics of him.   He had been on a farm for a while, he started out coming in the house to visit my grandparents.  Their house was old and had crack and holes that old Ben could come up through in the house.  We would find him in the bathroom and a couple of times on the curtain rod over the kitchen sink window.  I'm sure he was looking for mice or rats.  One of the problems of living on a farm and putting out feed, it brings in mice and rats. When I see harmless snakes, I let them go, that way they can help keep down the mice and rat population.  We haven't seen old Ben the last couple of  years, not sure if he is just hiding good or if he was killed or just died.  We would see him a lot around the barn, all stretched out.  

One day, I was over at the barn, and I found him enjoying one of my eggs.  I like to leave the black snakes on the farm, I have always heard they would keep venomous snakes away.  I have lived on the farm 44 years now, and I have never seen a venomous snake on the farm.  I would like to keep it  that way.  I named him Old Ben after the black snake in Jesse Stuarts book Old Ben.  If you have never read the book  or any of Jesse Stuarts books, I would highly recommend reading his books.

Rain and little garden update.

We are finally getting some rain and we needed it.   The weeds in the garden is doing great.  Looks like I will be doing some weeding this week. Everything is doing good except our corn.  I hope it pulls out of it.  After it got so tall, I had planned on sowing late beans, in with the corn.  Now I won't be able to.

Meet Cowboy

Meet Cowboy, he is our daughter's barrel and show horse.  They work geat as a team.  We have six horses altogether.   Hannah shows, Cowboy, Chico and Dakota and does well on all.

Cowboy getting  his teeth floated by the equine dentist.    I think he had to have one of his teeth pulled that day.    Cowboy also sees  a horse chiroprator at least once a year.   Wish I had a pic to show the chiropactor work on him, it is quite interesting.  He also see a farrier every 6 to 8 weeks. 

She feeds him McCauley's Feed.  They specialize in equine feed  and nutrition only.  They are out of Versailles, Ky.  It is excellent feed for horses.   Highly recommend it. 

This stuff is awesome to use on animal wounds.   We use it on all of our animals and it is safe for them if they lick it.  Great stuff. 

Here is Cowboy and Hannah carrying the Flag at the start of one of our local fun shows.   

Hannah uses this  to help with Cowboys ulcers.  She can always tell when he gets ulcers.  He will drop a little weight and like bit at his stomach.     She also keeps him dewormer and a joint supplement with him.   She pretty well spoils him.   He wins shows for and it is very important  she takes good care of him.    

Adding Pheasants and other chicks to the farm

So excited to be adding Pheasants to our farm.   We went and picked them up today along with salmon faverolle chicks.   Really don't know much about raising pheasants so this will be a learning experience for us.   I will try post updates on them and how it is all going.

salmon faverolles

 smaller pheasants

 older pheasants

My weekend project

I decided this weekend, I would redo and paint our chicken coops.  I have eggs going in the incubator and hopefully they will all hatch and I'm getting purchase some seabrights and getting  some Indian runners tomorrow.  So I need to get everything in order.  I didnt get everything and I think I over did it.  I sold just about all my chickens and turkeys and not I wish I hadn't.  So I'm working on getting my chickens, turkeys and ducks flock back up.  So excited, I love chickens.

Before I started, it was a mess. 

This is as far as I was able to get done today, I still have more painting and  we are going to build a lot.  Dogs and chickens don't mix so well. I was trying to be a little creative and different. 

closer view.  I am by no way an artist as you can tell but it was fun to day and  kinda cheers things up a bit.  I'm thinking about painting easter eggs above the doors,   

this is the side.  It wasn't finished in the pic but I have it finished, just no pic of it.    

The seabrights I'm purchasing.

more of the seabrights. 

Preparing and organizing for canning season.

In a couple more weeks it will  be time for us to start canning.  Our garden is coming along nicely and hopefully I will have plenty to can this years. I have canned for years, and  the older I get the more ways I try and find to make this time of the year easier on me.  I pretty much do all the canning myself, my hubby helps out when he can but  he works 40 plus hours a week and comes home and has his own farm work to do.

I find it  easier if I start planning ahead and start getting things gather up and cleaned up, so it will be ready to go.   I even try and plan ahead of time for quick and easy dinners.

1. I like to give my kitchen a good cleaning and remove things that I don't need so I have plenty of room to work and put my jars.   I want to have plenty of countertop space.

2.  I start getting my jars out of storage and soaking them.  I either wash them all by hand (which I prefer) or if I just really don't have the time I will put them in the dishwasher.   Just seems like they are cleaner when washed by hand.

3.  I make sure I have all my canning supplies gathered up and ready to go.   I make sure I have enough lid, wide mouth and regular.    I do a lot of canning, so I pretty much stay stocked up on them.

4. I try and plan meals that can go into the crockpot or oven.  By the time, I get up early pick beans, string, wash and put them in jars ready for the canner, last thing I want to do it worry about cooking on the stove.  It's hard to cook with a canner going.  I usually try and can around 70 or 77 quarts of beans every year.

5.  I like to go though all my old canning and see what needs to be dumped and cleaned out. So that, I have room for all my new canning.  I should be doing this one now.  That way I can have my shelves cleaned and organized, ready to go.

6. I like to make sure I have a list of things I would like to can, and have all the ingredients needed and ready to go.  Recipes too.

I think that is about it.   I'm looking for to canning this year.  

Little story that happen on the farm today.  I was sitting on the couch and I saw this big ole red cow running pass the door and with a dog on her tail.    Our daughters dog is a blue heeler, so I guess he was doing his job by chasing her.   He needs to learn the right way tho.    I thought to myself, what in the world is going on.   Well earlier in the day,  I kept hearing a cow bawling up the holler when I was hanging clothes on the line, I thought one of the cows calves lost her and they were bawling for each.  Nope, our milk cow blossom, had gotten out of the pasture some how and came down to the house.  Guess she wanted to visit or something. lol  We finally got her back up the hill and into the pasture back to her calf.  Her calf was very happy to see her mommy.  One of the joys of farming, when you livestock gets out and you have to chase them. We have gotten pretty good at chasing. lol  We did, however, have a feeder steer get out on us and we never did get it back up.  It took off into the woods and we never could catch him and no clue where he went.   We had only had him about 2 or 3 weeks.

Miss Blossom.  Thank goodness, she is tame and was easy to get back up.  But going up that steep hill wasn't fun. 

Just a few pics around the farm.

Just a few pics around the farm today.   We worked some in the garden this evening.  So far, the garden is looking pretty good, other than we have a lot of weeds to get out of it.

Tomato plant. 

ginseng 

Hubby tying  up tomato plants using a weaving method. We have never done the weave method before, I hope it works. 

We put out little over 200 tomato plants this year.  Hope they do good.  I plan on canning a lot of tomato juice, spaghetti sauce, manwich sauce. 

Some elderberry bushes.  We have a bunch of them on the farm, along with rasberry and blackberry bushes.   I hope to be able to can elderberry syrup this year. We put up alot of blackberries and rasberries if the do good.  Year before last was a great year for them, but last year we didn't hardly get any, same with our apple trees. 

Dinner and making homemade biscuits

I made homemade biscuits, fried deer meat, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans and fried green tomatoes.

 Just some of my canning from last year.  Makes for a quick dinner.  

Finished dinner. 

Frying up some of the green tomatoes I canned last year,  I rolled them in some of the cornmeal I grounded, some self rising flour, salt, pepper, and a little Mrs. Dash. 

I used 4 cups of self rising flour, butter, 1/3 cups of lard I rendered, tbsp sugar and 2 1/2 cups of sweet milk

I mixed it till I got it the way I wanted. 

Put dough on a plate or countertop with some flour and lightly fold over a few times. 

Pinch off a piece of dough and place on a buttered cookie sheet

Coat the top with lots of butter and bake at 415 degrees until golden brown  and done. 

Biscuit with honey and butter.