Our Lady's Windy Acres

Chicken pox!

God has a sense of humor....I can see that now.  When the chicken pox was all around us, I considered the benefits of having the children come down w/it, but thought that the timing would be off, as our oldest is getting married in 2 months, and we have bridal showers, etc, to get through.  Therefore, I stay away from all contagious living beings. 

So, my hubby goes and gets the shingles. OK, I thought, as long as the kids don't touch his skin we should be ok.  Three weeks go by, then shingles are gone, and no one near us has chicken pox. HA!  9 year old DD came down with them on Thursday. So....here we are, with 5 more kids surrounding her in a 6-room house, the oldest is supposed to come home for next weekend and take one of her sisters back w/her for sister time, the wedding is 2 months away, and I with my handy dandy calendar has figured out that if these kids come down w/it one at a time with 2 weeks separating them, we'll have chicken-pox-laden kids at wedding time - and they are ALL in the wedding!!!

There are definitely benefits to having your children get them early. My oldest 3 are adults, and I hear it hits them  hard. God willing, it won't be too bad.

Somewhere in here, I have to get some energy up to work on gardening stuff.....if I can get some rest LOL!

I've been gone a month! Updates!

Wow - I didn't realize I'd left this so long.  I've started tomatoes, bell peppers and lettuce under grow lights.  We did a cheap alternative to the costlier grow lights - I have UV lights in my basement so we just lowered a set on chains and voila - the frugal way to start seeds!  I also got a great deal on two greenhouses, one a very small, 4-tray, castered one from Lowe's and then another one that is 6' x 8' with polycarbonate panels from Sam's Club. I'm hoping to put that one together today, but I really have to pull my act together for Easter. We attend the Vigil Mass tonight and that will go probably 2-3 hours, so I don't want to be so fried that I fall asleep in the pew!

I'd like to try my hand at making cinnamon rolls from scratch, so we can all have some sweets after the Vigil, when Lent will be officially over, so that's next on my list. 

I've got laundry out on the line, and it's a lovely sunny day...thank you God!

Do I smell Spring?

Ah, the change of seasons in Ohio - 70 degrees one day, 35 the next. how weird is that?!  Well, we did take advantage of the warmer day to start clearing the garden of last year's detritus in preparation for this year's planting, but I still have to plant my seeds in jiffy pots. I think I've realized that I need to loosen the jiffy weave - in clearing the garden I found some of my plants couldn't break free of the webbing. That might be why our garden last year wasn't so good. 

We also got the chickens into the garden to help clear, and I think they were quite happy - once they realized why we were throwing them over the fence, that is!

We've finally invested in a gas-powered log splitter, so it's now much easier for all of us to get wood split, which in early spring is very valuable!

Ahhh...hopefully I'll get those seeds planted today.

Have a blessed Tuesday!

Farm pictures

Thanks to my friends I can now add pics up on the actual entry...wahoo! So I'm going to pop up some pics of the livestock and garden that I have when the weather isn't brrrrrrrisk!

Here are Suntide and Bella, our two manure machines...tough life, isn't it?!

Here was our fledgling garden in 2007...we had a great year considering we had no clue what we were doing!

Haying by (mostly) hand....now that is tough work!

This is how the girls had to bundle up last week to take care of the livestock....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Here is our newest acquision, a cantankerous, cranky Dexter heifer calf named Maisie, aka PITA (as in pain in the anterior).  We hope to breed her and have milk from her, along with offspring we can sell.  Hopefully she'll mellow with age, otherwise she'll end up being the most expensive ground beef I've ever eaten!

We also have a Jersey steer named, appropriately, T-bone.  Three guesses where he's going to end up, but looking at those liquid brown peaceful eyes is just worrying LOL! He's nice and copacetic with life, quite the difference from Maisie.  Couldn't get a picture to load of him of course!

We also have 2 flocks of chickens - Barred Plymouth Rocks and Buff Orpingtons.  I'll have to get some more pics up here now that I know how this picture thing works!  Happy Thursday everybody!

Dare I try?

I'm going to publish a newsletter...I hope!

Merry Christmas! Updates and so on..........

Dusting off and moving forward

Well, I've not blogged for a while. Life got away from me, I guess. With the voting results last week, I was afraid that if I did blog, I'd say something I might regret, as my feelings at the result from the vote were very strong, to say the least.  That being said, I've got a few things on my mind (!).

First of all, I have to say how very disappointed, frustrated and downright angry I am that 54 or so percent of all Catholics actually voted for Obama.  They aren't Catholics at all, in fact, just pew-warmers, cultural Catholics, pick-n-choose Catholics, C&E Catholics.  The fifth commandment couldn't get any clearer, could it? What part of Thou Shalt Not Kill do these people not understand? An unborn child is a living being, formed in his mother's womb. Abortion is murder. Full stop. It's a "DUH" moment.  The bishops came out and said that to vote for someone who is pro-abort is tantamount to committing a mortal sin and putting your soul in jeopardy.  Did these people listen? Nope.  If these people can't follow ALL the rules of the church, then they need to move on.  We have enough hypocrites in the world - we don't need any inside the church.  Sigh - good thing I'm not in charge LOL.

I think we're in for some very hard times in the future.  Homesteading skills are suddenly becoming very necessary.  We have to relearn so many things that have been lost, all in the name of progress.

A very wise priest, Fr. Ryland, said last week in one of his homilies that in spite of all this, we must find joy.  Wow.  I must admit I'm having trouble with that one, but maybe we are to find joy in simpler things - our family, having enough rather than an abundance, our Faith.

Therefore I must dust myself off, and move forward.  God is in control and He always has a plan.  In His infinite mercy, He will bring all of us back where He wants us, no matter what needs to be done to do it.

The calves are here! Does God have a sense of humor????

Well, we got the beef steer on Saturday, and he settled right in like he's lived here all along. Munching away on the pasture grass and happy as a hog in whatever hogs are in!  We got the Dexter heifer calf yesterday and I should have known she' d be trouble when she escaped right out of the trailer! ARGH!  We finally got her in the stall, and we've had her out in the pasture on a lead line, because she wants to be with the horses, and they don't want her! 

On top of all that, this morning she got out again on the way from the barn to the pasture.  Poor thing's been quite traumatized, being taken away from her herd and her mamma, but enough already! Luckily, DH and the girls were able to get her back.  That was the good news - the bad news is that after he left for Adoration she got out of the barn, and took off down the road!  Long story short, they were finally able to catch her after she fell into a swimming pool! God answered our prayers, but I think He's got an interesting sense of humor, because in the midst of all this cattle-catching, we ended up w/2 stray kittens!

Somehow our homeschooling day isn't going the way I planned. Happy Monday!!!!

Bovine Bonanza!!!

It's finally happening - we're getting a Dexter heifer calf for milk and a Jersey steer calf for meat delivered tomorrow!!! I'm so excited!! I'm a bit nervous, too, as we've never dealt with cattle of any kind before, but I hope to get some research done today before they get here! I hope the horses accept them, otherwise life is going to get...interesting!

Windswept!

Watching parents age

A new venture into dairydom!!!

We may be adding to the farm menagerie soon - we should be getting a Dexter heifer in the next two weeks, due to the generosity of a friend! Wow!!!! Guess I'd better get reading - I'd hate to try to milk the wrong end!

Our baby's getting married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayers for a passing

Blessed in friendship

What a lucky woman I am

Aren't I blessed?

Sigh....time flying again!

It seems like I plan to get online and blog more often every time I come here, but life intervenes.  I think I need more help in the garden...the weeds are having a wonderful time, but I still have YET to get any food out of it besides strawberries and peas! I think the bush beans are about ready. I'll check them today.  Sigh...it's been a strange Spring and Summer weatherwise.  The homeschooling is going very well, though, so at least I'm harvesting in that way!

My firstborn is turning 25 today!! Thank you God for blessing me with her (and for helping me survive her teenage years!)!

I made a lovely chicken soup yesterday for today's dinner....my own chicken stock, organic carrots that I got at a bargain price of only 46 cents a bag, kelp, celery and chicken of course lol!  I'll make bread today to go with it and perhaps some cookies!

OK...I'm officially a homesteader

How do I know this? Well...for my recent birthday I received, to my surprise, a number of useful presents. A pistol, ammunition for said gun, a gun cleaning kit, and a John Deere t-shirt.  Well now...so much for a gardening apron or a new stainless steel cookie sheet!

So...today I get to really enter into the world of homesteading. We've caught a raccoon in a trap, and it's going to be my job to "dispatch" the little critter using the aforementioned present. Ah, the joys of farm life when your hubby is out of town.

Could be worse I suppose. 

Life on the Farm