Just another Day on the Farm

So I have booked Glenda in for butcher, she is very close to coming two and I don`t want to carry her over the winter, (that brings us to the freezer and the work that is coming on those on a different post) and I had planned on sending in at least one of my big pigs.

I am deeply sad to say that Miss Piggy will at some point be going for butcher, it cost`s me around 1000 plus a year to feed, bed and look after my `breeding pigs` if they give me at least one full litter per year, I consider it covered but be it Miss Piggy`s fault or Kermit`s fault, bottom line, I am sinking good money after bad, the vets all agree, if you don`t breed the female`s as they get older, they won`t breed..

Which is where I am sitting, ideally I will breed Apple when she is old enough with Kermit, and if still no piglets, then Kermit goes next, and I will give Apple one more try with a different boar.

So I went to book my big pig in and nope.. turns out we now have a pig trace program in effect and I need to register the farm with such and such id, and then register the pigs in the pig trace program and then buy adult and piglet tags in sets of way more then I would need in like ten years at a time..

Which all needs to be done before I can even book a hauler or a butcher, and each part of the process is a 2 to 4 weeks to process the paperwork..

Its new and its a pain in the rear.. but I am grateful that friends informed me of it.. I like raising my own pork, but at this point, I am really leaning hard towards just trying to find a good source of piglets and just buying one or two per year like we use to..

I am truly thinking that breeding my own and just a few extra for farm gate sale is going to be something of the past. This makes me sad to be honest but no matter how I move the numbers, between the cost of the feed, the bedding, the cost of buying weaner piglets, the increase costs in hauling, butcher costs etc. I would have to raise my per pound price far to much.

and while I could try and raise more of my own pig food, the truth is, I don`t have time to add more to the gardens..

If I am only raising them to normal market weight, then for my own use, I can just butcher at home. I will be honest, I can`t do Miss Piggy myself, I can`t look that sweet pig in the eye on this one.. I am going to be wreck on the day she goes to the butcher.

Well, since I have been home, I have been sick with after effects of my bad lung infection, my lungs (they say) will take a month or months to heal properly from the infection.. o joy..

Going from warm to cold, triggers coughing, the purrpots are causing me to cough, I am needing to move out all but the oldest and youngest purrpots, now they are not that hard done by, the little barn (that is the space of most regular barns, has everything they need but of course, they prefer to be in the house.. so we are having a battle of, put the kitty out..

my bedroom is currently my resting space, and that’s great but as I feel a little better each day I am trying to spend more time upstairs and get a  bit more done, all my regular fall cleaning didn`t get done, lets face it, washing wall, cupboards and draws is just not fun to do or read about ,but they do need to be done..

I have not got any real time outside with my farm critters, just barely got in the hello`s and a check over to make sure they are all good..

I have not even made it out to my garden.. whimper.. o my garden, so much that needed to be done and now its sitting under four inches of snow.. I will be grumpy about that in the spring when I have to do more work then normal.. there is a reason that you are to put your garden to bed.. sigh..

O well, at least my hubby got all the harvest`s done, that is the important thing..

My pantry is a mess, I am confused on what I do and don`t have.. so much got put into the freezer instead of canned so my canning area seems off and I have to remember to ask for things to come in terms of fruit and veggies.

I have to go back to the doctors again, I hope I don`t have to stay on the inhalers for to long but I am glad to have them at this time.

I am working hard to figure out what foods help my lungs vs what ones don`t sit well and soon have me coughing and at times throwing them back up..

What a year.. I normally say its the year of the whatever from the garden but I think this year is going down as the sick-broken bone year.. Thank goodness its a new year coming soon..

I have huge! rabbits ready for butcher and they are going to have lovely big pelts, I have ducks that need to be butchered, I have chickens, and I have not gotten any of my fall butcher of the larger critters done yet either.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time..

Christmas is coming and I am looking forward it! but I have almost nothing ready for it..  The only thing I have ordered so far is a gift for my mother in law, and a Christmas cd for my mom..

Well, I had better get going, my rest is over for the moment.

I would like to say, I danced a jig, but in truth, I had a nice lovely homemade light broth and farm veggie soup that Dh made me and put on my wonderful homemade (by dear Hutterite friends) flannel nightie and to bed early..

Poor hubby fluttered around me a number of times while I coughed and coughed, but finally got it settled down enough for a five hour sleep, which is really good at the moment, even if I did get him up before the alarm clock..

The hounds are all attached at the hip and major snuggle bunnies, they have to have a body part somehow touching mine, and while I know they have been left alone for 12 plus hours a day and so accidents happen and nothing was made of it, because no dog can hold that long, now that I am home and letting them out regular, I am not happy that we have had two accidents by the door for me to clean up..  so I will need to put them all back on ` puppy training outside timing for a couple days to a week to get them back to where they should be..

The cats gave me the eye, you know the one… you left and been gone forever! but boy did that change this morning when I was the one that did breakfast 😛

The horse`s where funny, both came up very happy to the gate, Brandy was Farmgal! nudge, cuddle head down, I missed you.. Caleb was smell you all over and then give me the eye… you been gone along time, and you need to make friends with me again.. LOL No worries big guy..  Poor Caleb, its been a hard summer for him, every time I get well enough that we are really bonding, I had something happen that took me out of the bond for weeks at a time and had him with hubby.. not that bonding with hubby is bad, but I will be working hard to cement the bond we do have as the time goes on

Well, I need to make soap and lots of it, at least eight batches but not while I am still sick, you need to be in the right frame of mind to make good soap, and my head that feels wrapped in cotton is not a good one.

I am just puttering today, o my god, so much to do!! ah.. everywhere I look there is something that needs doing.. sigh.. so I am breaking it down, today`s goals are super simple, do the dishes, clean the floors, pick one small spot and clean it etc Feed the cats, feed the house dogs, make a hot meal to be waiting for hubby.

These might not seem like much compared to when I am well but getting the little things done for hubby means that he will have time to do something a little bit more or longer or bigger when he gets home..

So far everywhere I look I see super fat critters, clearly hubby made sure no one was lacking food, which is a good thing but overfeeding is hard not just on the feed bill but its not really great for the critters either.

I will grab the camera and take photos as I start getting things done, the next weeks are going to be busy!

Ok, when I start getting private emails asking if I am ok and where did I go.. I am still alberta for just a little bit longer with mom.. I am both very excited to be heading home to the farm, I miss my husband, my critters, my farm and my friends!

But on the other hand, I am leaving a part of me and my heart with my momma here where I grew up, over the years of living away, leaving to a point had gotten a bit easier, but this is going to be one of those leaving that is going to have me in tears..

Mom is both ready and not ready for me to leave and we both know it.. its going to a very bitter-sweet day indeed.

As for second thing that has ruled the past few weeks, my health.. I was not truly healed well from my fall and my broken bones when I came out for the funeral and I got a flu that turned into a massive lung infection, ears, sinus`s and so forth, I have been two rounds of antibodic`s and its cleared but when I cough. wow.. I am currently on a inhaler for the next couple weeks that is to help with opening my lungs up and help with the coughing..

I guess it does to a point, but to no one would look at me and say, she looks healthy, instead they look at me and go… well you were better then before..

That about sums it up right now.. each day is a little bit better then the one before..

I have been taking notes on a different things to blog about and it will happen, but at my mom`s if I am on long enough to check email and or facebook an she is telling me to get off that blasted computer LOL

So just chill and relax time on the computer has not been happening.. soon.. Everyone have a great weekend.

Want to know what I think is the secret to successful small homesteading..  I honestly think it comes down to two huge things

1) being some of the most stubborn folks you will ever have the pleasure or displeasure of meeting! I mean we can stick like gumbo mud baby when we want to..

and

2) the ability to know when to change.. to float.. to take the risks, to dream what can be.. to know that to change is NOT failure, that sometimes even when its working, you can stop doing it, even when you are successful at X, does not mean that you can`t shift to Y.

Both of those skills come from the ability to have a rock solid belief in yourself.. I read a lot of blogs, ok I read a few blogs these days but over the past ten years I have read a lot of blogs, followed some for a few weeks, some for a few months and some for years now.

Those that struggle the most (not those that have a health issue or a fire or something outside the norm) tend to still look outside themselves for the pat on the back..

Those homesteaders or small holders as very few folks truly homestead, are still living by the `working`system, they look at the farm as their job and they take the feedback from blogs, from books, from friends and family, like its feedback from that world as well

Now don`t get me wrong, blog feedback is great, LOVE IT, but I rarely seek it for what should we do on the farm.

Those folks really struggle, I don`t want to make as simple as to say they have not found themselves yet.. but if you made me try and say it in a single sentence, that would be the one I would choose.

I have always been very blessed in that I `live in the moment` I can make myself look back or forward, I have been trained to see the big picture but my natural headspace is `right now`to be in the right now, to feel the right now..

Its normally very peaceful in the right now.. not always.. sometimes the now is darn right mean but most of the time.. the now is a good place to be.

Lately I have been forced to spend more time in the past and the future, then I normally do..  I find myself craving the `now`