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