I'm
an early riser. I awake before the chickens by at least an hour or two.
I spend my first thirty minutes, before my feet hit the floor, in
prayer. It's an uplifting way to start my day on the right foot. Or should I say left foot because my right foot is still partially paralyzed and spastic. My cat,
Little Bit, demands some one on one time. Then I'll don my socks, leg
brace, pants, and shoes in preparation of actually getting up. I'll grab
a sweatshirt from the drawer because I know the night fire in the wood
stove has gone out. In the predawn darkness, I'll make my way into the
dining room after a pit stop to the bathroom. And so begins every
morning.
Once halfway in the dining room I'll ask,
"Where's my puppy?" Herbie will sleepily come to me for his first
morning head rub. I'll walk into the kitchen and fill the electric
kettle with water, and then make myself a cup of Earl Grey tea. Some
people make coffee, but that acrid liquid hits my stomach and comes
right back up. Nobody likes to start the day that way. I'll take my
cuppa tea to my desktop to read my emails and watch some YouTube to see
what the homesteaders I follow and touch bases with them. I usually will
start writing this blog and my other one. (this takes me many hours to
complete) I may or may not put on my sweater because the inside
thermometer on my desk is registering the temp this morning at 64 inside
while outside is a blustering 42. Warm enough for my sweatshirt and
keep the chill at bay.
I'll clean the wood stove and
empty the ashes from the overnight burn into the outside pile. Since we
only use hard woods in our stove, they'll be great for the garden later.
They are still some hot embers in this right now so shoveling this into
the compost pile is not a good idea. I'll put the pan back under the
wood stove and set up the fire for later. Mel will want it warmer in the
house when she wakes up. But it will a couple of hours before that
happens. I'll be fine with all the morning activities. Besides, I have
enough body fat to keep two people warm and insulated.
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| Can you smell it? |
Every Wednesday and Saturday is baking day. I'll bake the bread we
need on the homestead, convert a loaf of bread into french toast, make
Mel's crepes (what she calls pancakes), cinnamon rolls, or crumpets. At
least get the crumpets, rolls, or/and bread mixed and rising. The excess will go into the freezer for later in the week. I may also
make hamburger and hot dog buns depending on the week's menu.
Of
course, making bread on our homestead takes some preplanning. Two days
before, I'll soak the whole wheat kernels overnight. The following day,
I'll rinse it and spread it out on a baking sheet to dry by the wood
stove. The next day, it will be ground into flour for whatever I'm
baking. It will take about three passes through our manual grain mill to
get it as fine as I like it. Yeah, I know I can go to the store and buy
my flour, but have you seen what's in that?! Is it GMO? Is it organic?
What kind of pesticide or insect droppings or particles may be in it?
YUCK!
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| Devon in his healthier days |
Next comes the feeding the inside animals. Assorted
dogs, get fed half their daily rations per weight. We feed them twice a
day. The cats normally have free choice of their dry cat kibble
throughout the day except for Devon Angel. This male gets two
tablespoons of wet cat food twice to three times a day. He is Mel's
special needs cat and is mentally retarded. The reason for feeding him
wet rations is simple. All his teeth have rotted in his mouth. He can't
chew the dry cat food. He tries but he lost so much weight over the
summer, we thought we would lose him. He was literally skin over bones
before I started him on wet food with goat's milk supplements. After
three months feeding him this way, we can no longer feel his ribs and
hip bones under his skin. He's back to his semi healthy state enough to
play in the fallen leaves.
After
the dogs have eaten and I make sure the other cats haven't nudged Devon
away from his food, it's time to take care of the outside animals.
First stop is the chicken pen. Not that the chickens are in there. They
hear me coming down the covered porch steps and greet me from under the
porch. Once the sun rises, they fly out of the coop and run area. They
follow me back into their pen for their snack. I usually have leftover
bread, leftovers, or stale crackers handy. I'll scatter these and their
pellets rations around their run area for them. We do have a chicken
feeder, but this week has rained too much to use it. I'm not complaining mind you. We still haven't
tarped around the coop or finished the roof yet. So I really blame the
chickens for not staying their coop.
Next come the
rabbits. Since we have J feeders in the rabbitry, I only have to fill
them every couple of days. I'll go into the rabbitry to pet and talk to
each one of them every morning. Mel is charge of their watering them. The idea of taking all those water bottles down to fill and them, and hanging them back up is a nightmare. I
do the morning feeding and check up, and she does the evening. We split
the chores evenly. The outside rabbits are last. I'll repeat the
process all over again.
I'll
gather the eggs. Since we are in winter mode and it's early morning,
there's only about two or three eggs. They easily slip into my pocket.
Now, I've gone almost full circle around the outside of the house. Luckily my balance is good enough that I can do this without my cane. I
climb up onto the front porch, pick up a couple of pieces of firewood
and place them on the small table outside the front door. It's all I can carry with one fully functioning arm. I'll repeat
this procedure until I have six or eight pieces stacked on the table.
I'll go inside carrying two pieces. I'll drop them next to the wood
stove. Then I'll take the eggs out of my pocket and put them in the
refrigerator. I'll light off the wood stove, fill the canner pot with
water, fill the pet water dish, and bring in the other wood I stacked on
the table. By this time, the wood stove is ready to be loaded with more
wood. Within half an hour the house is a toasty 76 degrees.
I'll
set up Mel's morning tea things. She loves Yorkshire tea with cream and
sugar. I'll pour myself another cuppa tea and make myself some oatmeal. Then I'll go back outside and stack about ten pieces of firewood by the door for the next time.
Between 9 and 10 Mel will wake up. Her tea will be steeping and she can
sit in front of her laptop and wake up. I've already been up for 4 to 5 hours by this time. I'll fix her breakfast and put
the bread in the oven. I'll plan what cooking videos I want to film.
Hmm, this week I've got to do the promised dog treat/training biscuits
and my caramel apple gingerbread cake. Oh, and there's the sugar free hot cocoa mix. Tis the season and all that.
Some
time soon, we've got to do a "Tea Time" video. We haven't done one
since October. Time flies when you are running around like a chicken
with your head cut off preparing for freezes. A list of my prospective
video topics will take take us into February next year doing my segments
once a week, and then it will be planting season again. Or, at least
seed starting season. Our first hard freeze of the year was this Friday.
The high was 32 degrees not counting the cold, arctic wind that came
with it. It's been quite a few years since I've endured temperatures
that low for more than a day or two. That's just winter here. Still not
as bad as the winters I lived through in New York, Nebraska, Michigan,
or other places up way north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Mel
told me to hay the outside rabbits preparing for the freezing. Being
the smart butt that I am, I went to each cage waving like a crazy person
and yelled "Hey!" to them. Once she came around and saw me with a
quizzical look on her face, I stopped and put the required hay in their
cages. My Buddy immediately started eating it as did most of the
bunnies. I had to repeat the process several times to ensure they'd have
enough to burrow in to keep warm. For the really hard freezes we tack
up tarps to block the wind.
So how has your week been? Y'all have a blessed week and remember...
Nothing is impossible
(Just griping here) My
right hand is snuggled in my sweater sleeve. Since it doesn't move,
this works great, but have you ever tried buying one glove? It almost
seems wasteful to buy a pair when only one will be used. Plus, having a
small hand, I often unable to find small sized gloves. I wear the pig
leather work gloves almost exclusively now. They are flexible for fine
work and sturdy enough for the tough stuff. And of course, there is a definite left and right hand. Unlike the tube socks I wear over my old lady compression socks. Gloves, or should I say a glove, are fun to put one handed. It's a repeated rubbing motion of the glove against my pants leg to get it on, and resorting to my teeth pulling them off.
After
the dogs have eaten and I make sure the other cats haven't nudged Devon
away from his food, it's time to take care of the outside animals.
First stop is the chicken pen. Not that the chickens are in there. They
hear me coming down the covered porch steps and greet me from under the
porch. Once the sun rises, they fly out of the coop and run area. They
follow me back into their pen for their snack. I usually have leftover
bread, leftovers, or stale crackers handy. I'll scatter these and their
pellets rations around their run area for them. We do have a chicken
feeder, but this week has rained too much to use it. I'm not complaining mind you. We still haven't
tarped around the coop or finished the roof yet. So I really blame the
chickens for not staying their coop.
I'll
gather the eggs. Since we are in winter mode and it's early morning,
there's only about two or three eggs. They easily slip into my pocket.
Now, I've gone almost full circle around the outside of the house. Luckily my balance is good enough that I can do this without my cane. I
climb up onto the front porch, pick up a couple of pieces of firewood
and place them on the small table outside the front door. It's all I can carry with one fully functioning arm. I'll repeat
this procedure until I have six or eight pieces stacked on the table.
I'll go inside carrying two pieces. I'll drop them next to the wood
stove. Then I'll take the eggs out of my pocket and put them in the
refrigerator. I'll light off the wood stove, fill the canner pot with
water, fill the pet water dish, and bring in the other wood I stacked on
the table. By this time, the wood stove is ready to be loaded with more
wood. Within half an hour the house is a toasty 76 degrees.
We built the new coop and run
for the chickens. The chickens have flown the coop literally! It took
less than two hours for the main rooster, Whitie, to figure out he could
fly over the 4' fence safely and show the others how it was done. They
were back to roosting on our front porch.
I
got irritated with it all. I swiped them off with my cane. They just
waited a few minutes and were right back again. I grabbed a sleeve of
stale crackers and led them back to their new roosting spot inside the
fence. A couple of them decided to fly the coop again. My trusty cane
had a workout until they decided to see it my way. I had to do this for a
few days before it became a habit for them. Now they at least roost in
the new chicken area instead of our porch. I take victories when I can
because once daylight shines they are back free ranging everywhere. They
still lay eggs in Mel's tool box and behind the front storm door, so I
can at least gather eggs. The egg laying bins need to be built. The hens
like their privacy and security. Then I'll have to train them to the
new set up.
We
finally got a good drenching rain!! It's been a long, dry summer and
fall. We actually had puddles on the property that weren't from a busted
water pipe! They lasted for two days before they dried up/soaked in. Of
course, it would storm the day we had to drive at 5 AM to the hospital
for my procedure. But we were thankful anyhow. It's supposed to rain
today according to the forecast, we'll see. It gave us a reprieve of
sorts. 
