Replacement Stream

 

Been Youtubing

I haven't really been doing much here lately. I've been doing more on YouTube. Since it's cooler outside, I'm able to be outside longer without getting too hot. And since I'm able to do more outside, there is more things to show on video that I can't just show with a picture. I usually only do a couple of minutes of video at a time and then I compiled it into a video of what I've done that week. Or what I hope to do in the future.

I would also like to get my YouTube subscribers up to a thousand so that I am able to monetize my videos again. I feel like such a sell-out having to do that because I used to say that I didn't care if I made any money or not. But right now we really need the money.

So with doing the videos, I haven't really been doing much here. Any pictures I take are usually put on Instagram. Whether I continue doing posts on here or not I don't know. We'll just have to see. Take care of and have a good night.

Still Here

Yeah, haven't really been doing much lately. Go look at my youtube channel to learn why. I could recap the whole thing here, but why? Right?

I do hope to get some weedeating done today. Get the pig area cleared and eventually get some of the runoff done. I honestly don't know if the pigs prefer the tall grass or if they would prefer it all cut down. I've asked them but all they did was yell for more food. Cutting all that down would then give them fresh green shoots to eat as it regrew. Does that count? I guess we'll see.

I called the staffing agency back yesterday. The only thing they had was an hour and a half away. Part of me is like, no way, too far. Part of me is like, hey, we need to money. So far, too far is winning. But not by much.

I really hate money.

Power Outage, Loving My Solar And Preparing For Lambs

Not much farm stuff going on this week. Several credit cards and other things have come due this week. Things that normally are spread between two weeks have landed in the same week. So the bank account is going to be tight again. And, of course, that means all projects go on hold.

We got a lot of wind and rain Friday night from TS Michael and our electricity went out. A lot of people lost power in our county. Michael went right over us so we got slapped with those heavier winds real good. But we didn't panic. Well, the kids and I didn't panic. My husband though was a bit unnerved. He's used to his creature comforts.

But the kids and I had candles ready. I'd already filled up a bunch of bottles with water and bought a camping grill from when Florence was a threat. We had things to eat. And, of course, we had the solar panels to power our electronic devices.

It was pouring rain and windy almost all of Friday. But the power didn't go out until 6pm. Major wind gusts. We were watching out of a window at the trees next to our house and I was pretty sure some of those trees were going to come down. But none of them did so that was good. The only thing we really got was some twigs on the electric fence wire. We've had more damage with less wind before so we got lucky this time.

But after the power went out, we got out the candles and played some card games by candle light. And these candles last a really long time. A pint mason jar, fill it with some vegetable shortening (like Crisco) and a stick candle in the middle. The only problem I've found with these is that the wax and vegetable shortening doesn't have anywhere to go when it melts so it can smother the flame. When I see the flame getting dim, I just power the extra wax and stuff into another mason jar.

Some people heat up the shortening before they put it in the jar to make it liquid and then it solidifies into a more uniform.... form. I don't know if that would help with the smothering problem or not but I'll try that the next time I make these.

Anyway, the solar battery was kind of low during the night because I hadn't been watching the power levels so we weren't able to charge any devices until the morning. But then I brought an extension cord in from the inverter and in a matter of hours, everything was back up to full. I also reattached the other 4 solar panels since I'd taken them off when I mounted the others up on the u-posts. (I really need to get those other 4 mounted as well.) So we are now back up to 800 watts. But we still only used a max of about 250 watts. So we've got room to spare. Looking forward to seeing how much farther I can push it.

That's even with me vacuuming while plugged into the solar panels. Yes, you heard that right. I vacuumed our den and kitchen with the power of the sun. You guys have no idea how much this tickles me. Now, this is a small vacuum and probably doesn't draw that much power. Some inverters will be sluggish when they first get that extra power drain and then pick up as they adjust to the demand. But my inverter didn't even flinch. I hope to power more things in the coming months.

But the electricity came back on about noonish the next day. The storm had also finally brought some cooler weather. Cool enough to fire up the fireplace. So I really need to get that firewood storage area done. I'm thinking of keeping it by the back of the house but maybe putting some kind of termite pesticide around it. 

I don't usually use pesticides if I can avoid them at all. But I'd like to get a load of firewood next week and I don't know if I can get the other area prepared in time. I'll have to actually build a wood shed and that's extra money. So we may just have to risk it up against the house for now.

(Hmm, I just looked up how to deal with firewood and a terminix website came up. It said one of the best ways was to keep the wood off of the ground. So this may actually work since I was working on that anyway.)

Besides, any wood right now needs to go towards the new sheep shelter. These girls are possibly due next month and I need to get at least three stalls built. I'll probably only have some wood slats and a tarp as the roof for now until I can get the whole thing built and a better roof put on.

I did move the sheep fence a bit yesterday so they could get some fresh munch. The grass seems to have just stopped growing out of the blue. Even before the storm brought the cooler weather. So I'm now having to buy hay to make up for the diminished browse. 

I also bought the sheep a bag of alfalfa pellets. I'm going to have to find a different brand though because these pellets are huge and I'm afraid the sheep will choke on them. For now I'll have to try to crunch them up to make them easier to eat. But the girls need the extra nutrition because if this is the last month of their pregnancies, the babies do the most growing now. 

I wish I'd seen them mate at least once so I'd have a better idea on a due date. But I also wasn't going to hang around outside like some psycho waiting for my sheep to do the naughty. So I'm just going by the date of when I first put them together. Males of any species usually don't waste much time if there's a female in heat. I did see him giving the girls attention months ago, but no actual mounting. But he's not giving them that same type of attention now so I can only assume the job is done.

Anyway, time to get the kids up so they can get ready for school. Then time to start my own day. Take care all and have a good day.

Crochet Projects And Other Things

So it's been a while since I've done a post. Haven't really been doing anything that I felt was something I could make regular updates about. I finished rearranging to electric wire. Mostly. I also moved over all of my posts from steemit. A lot of copy and paste takes more time then you think. Since then I've been mostly crocheting. Working on some cowls to sell, some as gifts. 

This first one here is a black and orange Halloween themed cowl.

One side in striped and one is varied like this.

I also made a cowl for my daughter. The yarn is multicolored in shades of blue. This one is the same on both sides.

I also made another gift cowl that is purple and teal. 

I also set up an area for a future firewood pile. This will probably hold about half a cord. A full cord is 4x4x8. If we end up getting a full cord, I will either have to extend this or widen it more from the wall. It was all grown up with weeds and I cleared those out and laid down some wood chips.

My sunchokes were also blooming last year. They are related to sunflowers. Which is why I call them sunchokes instead of jerusalem artichokes, since they're not related to artichokes.

But that's pretty much what I've been doing lately. Not really much to update about. Like, you guys wouldn't want to have a picture every day of how many lines I've gotten done on a crochet project. Next week I should be getting some more exciting things done so I'll update you then. For now, take care and have a good day.

Mowing The Garden And The Other Side Of Our Property

I actually got some stuff done on the garden today. Not as much as I would have liked but progress nonetheless. I was mostly able to mow between the beds. But things from the beds were hanging over the paths so much that I had to start on a couple of them also.

This is a picture of the front of the garden. If you look back on my video earlier you will see the difference.

First I cleared some of the stuff that was hanging over the into the paths. Then I started on these two beds in the back because they were less overgrown.

I did get a little bit of mulch spread in front of the garden. Only two loads but it's a start. The handle of my garden cart comes off with two rods and cotter pins so that I can securely attach it to the back of our big mower. It made the job of moving the mulch so much easier.

While I did more work on the garden, my daughter drove over to the other side of our property and remowed what we had done before. All of the rain had started to make it grow up again. I don't know how much longer her fascination with using the big mower will last. But I'll take what help I can get. She also does a very good job.

At one point she ran out of gas and I had to bring her the gas can. I don't know what the sheep thought I had but they kept following me back and forth across the runoff. You would think they never get fed.

Anyway, it's way past my bedtime and I need to get some sleep. Take care of all and have a good night.

Getting Things Accomplished.. Or Not.

So yesterday I didn't get done with quite as much as I had wanted. I did switch the bunny to a cleaner cage. So that was the most important thing. Today I cleaned her old cage out. So that's done too. Still not sure what to do about the sheep's fencing. I've got a lot of extra on the pig's fence. So I guess I could cut it off and attach it to the sheep's fence. But I really don't want to cut up the wire until I have all of the permanent fencing done and I know exactly how much electric wire I'm going to need. But I may end up not having a choice.

I did get some u-posts yesterday to start the new sheep shelter. I really want to get that done before the sheep start having lambs. I actually recorded some video this morning of the area that I'm going to put it. These clips are only a minute long each because I also put these on my instagram and that only takes one minute videos.

But today's plan is to try to start reclaiming the garden.... Again. I was going to use the big mower to pull my garden cart to get some of the mulch into the garden. But the husband just said that another tire looks like it's flat. So I'm going to call the garden center and see if they can fix it. I mean, we've only had it for a couple of months now. It's very much still under warranty. I'm just not sure if the warranty covers flat tires.

Anyway, I did a video clip about the garden too.

Ok, gotta get going to pick up the oldest. Then back to mowing the garden to prepare for the mulch. Take care all and have a good day.