Waiting Sucks

So normally I would be doing some more mowing and weedeating to keep this grass and weeds under some kind of control. But for one thing, it's been raining. For another, we're going to be getting a zero turn mower.

We're members of a credit union and we get a really good rate on personal loans. We got one when we moved in here to help with the moving expenses and other debt we'd accrued while waiting for our house to be finished. Over the years we've been here, it has been coming out of his direct deposits from work and has been getting steadily paid off.

So since we're in desperate need of a bigger mower, we've decided to renew our loan. Having a loan with a credit union is a heck of a lot better than getting another credit card from a card company or from any particular store.

We've pretty much picked out a mower that will work for us but nicely within our price range. Now to order it and wait for it to be delivered. Waiting sucks.

Reclaiming The Garden - Day 2

Didn't do much today. Been fighting a headache all day. But I did a least get behind the garden (which you can't see from this picture) and in between the raised garden beds on the left. I think you can tell a difference.

 Might try to get some of the beds weeded today if this headache ever goes away. But almost every month around a 'certain time of the month', I get headaches that just won't go away. Hopefully it'll be gone by tomorrow but it's supposed to rain a lot tomorrow so we'll see.

Until then, take care and have a good day.

Reclaiming The Garden.... Again

Been a bit busy today. Trying to mow down and weedeat all of the grass and weeds that have taken over my garden with all of the rain, heat and my own lack of action.

First picture is the garden before. (Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

Then this is what I've gotten done today. With the help of my younger two children. I tried to enlist my husband's help but he decided to do the front yard instead.

I will finish it tomorrow and, of course, post pictures. Then I'll need to weed the beds themselves. Not sure if I'll do that tomorrow or not. Depends on if I have any energy left. I have a bad habit of pushing myself too far and then being tired for the next couple of days. But things have to get done. I'm also hoping to get some woodchips put down so this stuff won't grow up so fast again. But we'll see.

This next picture is of my only remaining bean plant this year. There should have been one on each of the poles. But I'm not sure if the bean beetles or grasshoppers or just the insanely tall grass killed off the others.

And it has one bean pod on it too. I'll be saving all seeds from this year for planting next year.

Ok, I'm going to go play some games. Been doing that when I would come in to cool off too. Think I might have some dinner too. Even though it's 7pm. Better late then never.

Take care all and have a good day/night.

New Bunny

So the other day my daughter and I went to the local feed store to sell a couple of the bunnies that were old enough for new homes. And then we came back with this girl. Her name is Myrtle. Partially because it's derived from the place that we bought her, and partially because all of our bunnies have Harry Potter names. She's only about 6 months old so I'll wait a couple of months more before I breed her to my redback buck. I'm pretty sure she's also a New Zealand rabbit. I've wanted a red New Zealand ever since I wanted to start keeping rabbits. I can't wait to see the beautiful babies she'll have.

Without Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All

I haven't heard anything from the manager at the big box feed store. So while I was at the store anyway today, I asked if the manager was in. The cashier responded that she didn't know if they even had a manager anymore because apparently the district manager was in today and he was NOT happy.

I swear, I really can't win. A store that could really help me get things done around here and a manager that seemed interested in hiring me. But if she got fired, who knows what will happen. Even when they get a new manager, who knows if they'll still be hiring or if they'll even give me a call. So yet again, I'm hanging in the wind.

I really need a job. Things that need to be paid. Projects that need to be completed. Why can't I get hired? What is wrong with me that nobody wants me?

Hi, I'm Back

So I haven't been here in a long time. A lot has happened. And a lot of that has been recorded on https://steemit.com/@silvermoonhmstd  . Most things before that can be viewed on my youtube channel which is connected to this blog.

But I think I'm going to start posting over here instead. On steemit, people have to sign up there to post a comment and that takes weeks to get accepted. Also, I can do a lot of things to the page over here so that's cool. My html is so rusty though. But here is my latest post from steemit for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

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So, as I'm sure you can tell from this picture, we've had to move the piglets in with the rabbits. This pen is totally fenced in and even has wire on the ground to keep the rabbits from digging. The wire on the ground is also attached to the wire on the sides of the pen. So there is no getting out of here. Unless they actually learn how to fly.

For anybody worried about the piglets being taken from their moms. It is a common practice to wean piglets at 4 weeks old. They were 5 weeks old yesterday. They are also eating and drinking on their own so they are ready.

So why separate them from their moms? Well, mostly because they were still getting into the chicken pen and eating all of the chicken food. Not only is this not fair to the chickens. But chicken feed can be fattening for pigs. And with American guinea hogs, keeping them from getting fat is a concern. Otherwise, I would have been totally fine with keeping them together until the babies were sold.

Of course, the breaking and entering of the chicken pen didn't stop there. Our biggest sow, Pippi, kept getting in. Apparently the electrical wire in their pen wasn't hitting hard enough to deter her from getting past it. And the welded wire around the chicken pen is nothing to her. She just puts her nose under it and pushes right through. One day she actually broke into the chicken pen and then broke out in another spot. She was actually running free in our back yard.

So I got fed up and bought a new fence charger that's supposed to be twice as strong, thinking there was something wrong with my current one. (Also got a great deal on it. Only $30 more than if I'd bought the same one I already had.) Still wasn't getting the charge in the pig pen that I used to be. So she still got through. I thought it might be a grounding issue so I bought more grounding rods and extended the whole grounding system about 50 ft. Still not getting the charge I should be.

At this point I figure there's something wrong with my wire somewhere. But not sure where. My next step is to rewire the whole system and make shorter 'pens' rather than trying to run the whole fence line as one continuous strand. That way with the shorter sections, the charge won't have to go as far and should hold better. My husband kind of explained it this way. Say you have a short water hose and you've got strong water pressure. Then if you extend that hose, you're going to lose water pressure because the water will have to go farther.

So for now I've got the smaller fence charger charging only the pig pen. She got zapped really good once and hasn't gotten into the chicken pen since. Of course, now that I say that..... Yeah, cross your fingers for me. I also let the sows back into the field with Boris and the sheep.

Yeah, the sheep are back on this side of the runoff for now. I saw a rattlesnake on the other side of the runoff and I don't want to risk me or the sheep to getting bit. Once the weather cools off enough that the grass and weeds slow way down, we're going to have that side of the property bush hogged. Maybe then I'll be able to get a significant amount of fencing done over there without having to fight the grass and weeds growing back so fast. Then next year we are really hoping to get some kind of riding mower or something to keep it cut down. 5 sheep just aren't enough to get it done.

I also have some ideas on how to fence in our property better so that the pigs and sheep will be better contained and safer as a whole. But that's going to take a lot of money and time so it will have to be done slowly.

Speaking of money and time, I've applied at the local big box feed store. I saw the other day (when getting the grounding rods) that they had a now hiring sign up. I spoke to the manager and told her I was interested. She asked if I'd applied online yet and I honestly thought I had. But once I realized that I had not, I immediately fixed that. So hopefully she will be looking for my name and will give me a chance. I really need a job. Money isn't getting any better here, not to mention all of the things that I need to get done around here. An employee discount at this store will go a long way in helping me to get some of these things done. And also lower my feed costs a little bit.

On a more positive note, the orpingtons and wyandottes are starting to lay. I'm not getting many eggs yet so I don't think they're all laying. But they've started. These eggs are also still pretty small. Common when they first start laying.

The squash laying there is the only one I got this year. All of my squash, zucchini and pumpkins were killed by vine borers. I've got ideas to deal with that next year too. The lemon cucumbers are producing really well though. More than we can eat all at once so I've been giving the extras to the pigs and chickens.

We also have more eggs than we can eat right now (filled one and a half of those 18 count containers, not counting the two dozen in our fridge) so I've been giving the pigs plenty of those too. I've also left some of the eggs in one of the nesting boxes, hoping one of the hens will go broody for me. I even left some eggs around the garden to try and attract black snakes since they eat rattlesnakes. I'd rather not have any snakes around my younger animals. But if I can keep the black snakes satisfied with extra eggs, then they can keep the rattlesnakes away too.

Ok, I'd better get to bed. It's late and I had a really early morning. Took hubby to the drs office to get a shot near his herniated disk to hopefully get it back to normal. If this doesn't work, he'll have to have surgery. NOT something we want to do so we're really hoping this shot works.

Alright, good night all and take care.

Flowers, Weed Eating, Escaped Pig And Funny Bunnies

This is a Peruvian Daffodil. Very pretty. Unfortunately, they are an annual here in zone 7. But I hope that it survives anyway because it's supposed to be good at zone 8 so just maybe it'll be ok. Would love to see it spread.

Over the past couple of days I've been weed eating along the electric fence line. It would have been one day but I got rained out about half way through and then it was raining off and on the past couple days.

Then sometime today, I guess I unplugged the electric fence and forgot to plug it back in. But I honestly can't remember why I would have unplugged it in the first place. Unless it's been unplugged since I started the weed eating.

But to get to the point, since the fence was unplugged one of the girl pigs busted out of their fenced area. Luckily she only busted into the chicken pen so she was still contained. She got into the bittie area and into the chicken coop. I was always told that pigs didn't like to step up or down things. The floor of the chicken coop is raised off the ground probably a foot and she still got into it so apparently American guinea hogs don't follow the pig rule book.

She didn't really hurt anything though so it's all good. Two of the piglets also got in with her but I don't think they really did anything that would have been noticeable. I think I'm going to have to get pig panels to help keep them in better. The welded wire fence is just no real barrier to our pigs. They're more afraid of the skinny little electric wire that bites.

But that's going to have to wait for a while anyway. I haven't heard anything more from the big box hardware store about the job I interviewed for. Guess I didn't get it. I have been applying at other places too so hopefully something will pan out.

Also, with hubby being on disability with his work, they screwed up and overpaid him. One for his disability and two for his vacation time. We didn't realize this was going to be a problem because they prorated the disability from the day he got hurt and it got deposited as one lump sum. It's just a big snaffoo. And it's their fault for not seeing that he'd used vacation time already. But now we're going to have to pay some of it back over the next couple months which is really going to screw us up. We're tight most weeks as it is and to have more money to come out of each paycheck is going to hurt. And it wasn't even our fault. Yet we're the ones paying for it. Literally.

I hate money. I really do. I just want to be able to work on my property and provide as much as I can for my family. But that's hard to do without the money to get things set up.

Ok, so this post has become a bit of a bummer. So instead I'm going to leave you with a video of a cute bunny doing something silly. Take care all and have a good night.

Getting Things Done A Little At A Time

So I've been busy. Sort of. Getting things done as I can with it being so hot outside. I've been getting things done as early as I can and then hiding inside for most of the day.

But I've expanded the sheep/pig area again. I've had the sheep on our side of the runoff ever since I made the bridge. We got them to go across it pretty easy once they realized it wouldn't bite them. Took some convincing though. But the past few days have been mixed with yard work and appointments of different kinds.

Hubby has had appointments for his back. Physical therapy appointments, orthopedic appointments and today he had an MRI so they can see better what is going on with his back. He's been home for over a month now and his back isn't getting better as quickly as they think it should. So an MRI was in order.

Daughter also had an appointment with her diabetes dr. Diabetics are supposed to see their dr every 3 months. Or, young diabetics at least. Not sure about adults.

Then I had a job interview yesterday at the local big box hardware store. Not sure if it went well or not. Most jobs will ask you things like 'Why do you want to work here?' or 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years?'. These guys asked me about what kinds of situations I've been in for past jobs. Like 'Have you ever had to deal with such and such situtation?'. I answered as best as I could. I haven't had a job in 6-8 years so it's all kind of a distant memory. But I think I did ok. I just wasn't prepared for those kinds of questions.

Anyway, here's a little view of the sheep in a part of their new area. I bought a whole new role of wire for this area so it's a pretty good size. But they're already happily munching away. You can also see that they're also right next to the poultry netting but just a touch with their noses and they'll learn to leave that alone. Boris, our bore, was already in the new area even before the sheep were.

They also now have access to their area across the runoff too. Sort of. I'm kneeling about a couple of feet away from the runoff to take this picture. As you can see, there is wire running across but only about a foot off the ground. This is low enough for the sheep to step over but high enough to be face or leg level for the pigs. The top wire to the right is a little higher than face level with the sheep.

I've done this for a couple of reasons. For one, I don't want the pigs going across the runoff because I'm afraid they'll go IN the runoff. For two, this gives the sheep an area away from the pigs since the pigs (right now, just Boris) still bully them. But mostly just at feeding time. And three, I'm hoping to feed the sheep on the other side of the runoff because Boris has learned how to get his front legs into the sheep feeder to eat their food and push them away. So I need a place to feed them that he can't get to.

But first to teach the sheep to step over these low wires to get to the other side.

And finally, a bonus picture of the chickens hanging out on top of the tractor. It mostly seems to be the wyandottes that do it. But I think I'll be checking wings soon to make sure everybody is clipped to prevent them from trying to fly out.

Anyway, it's getting late and I'm tired. Take care all and have a good night.

Bridge Finished! For Now.

Check it out! I built a bridge! And it's pretty nifty.

Building A Bridge

So I've been busy today. First, I got up pretty early to start getting supplies from the hardware store. I got four 4x4x8s, twenty-four 2x4x8s and eight 6ft long u-posts. I had to make several trips since all I have is my car to transport things. I can only fit 3 of the 4x4s or 9 of the 2x4s at a time. It took most of my morning just to get everything.

The rest of my day I spent cutting the 2x4s into 4ft lengths. And since a 2x4x8 isn't really 8 ft, I ended up with some pieces that were slightly shorter than 4 ft. So I staggered them with the 4 ft pieces. Actually looks nice too.

I used brackets to connect two of the 4x4s to create a 16 ft length. I put one of these brackets on each corner of the 4x4s. Like in the picture but on the other side also. Then I had my son help me to place the new 16 ft sections across the runoff.

Finally I got most of the 2x4 slats in place but not screwed down. The only ones that I did screw in are the first and the last ones. I also pounded the u-posts beside and screwed them into the side of the bridge to act as legs. Yes, there is a spot that is missing some of the 2x4s. I miscalculated how many 2x4s I needed so now I need to get a couple more.

I know this picture isn't the best in the world but I do plan on doing a video tomorrow to give a better look at it. During the daytime. Oh, and I'm being told that I should give my husband some credit for the design of the bridge. I was able to bounce ideas off of him to figure out what I would need and how long things needed to be. I am mostly pleased with how it turned out. It's nice and sturdy and will keep me from slipping in the mud or having to wear muck boots just to feed the sheep. I only wish that I had made it longer because it fits across the runoff, but not quite as far as I envisioned it would. But I suppose I can always add more onto it later.

Anyway, it's really late and I need to get to sleep. I want to do another early morning but I'm not sure if that's going to happen since it's so late now. I need my 8 hours or more of sleep so I'm not completely dragging through the day.

So you should go to bed too. What are you doing up so late? Go to bed! Have a good night and take care.

Trying To Survive The Heat

Haven't been doing much. Mostly hiding from the heat. I go out, feed and water the animals, come back in to cool off, try to do something outside (mostly mowing a bag or two or grass), go back in the house for the worst of the day and then go out and feed everybody their dinner. I took a bunch of short videos today about the animals and put them on instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/silvermoonhomestead/

It's just been too hot to really do anything outside. I'm going to try and get up really early tomorrow and try to get some things done before things start getting hot. Which means I'm going to have to go to bed early. That's fine though. I already feel sleepy.

I've also been trying to catch up on youtube videos. The ones that I'm subscribed to. Lots of people posting lots of things lately so I'm pretty well behind. But while I'm watching videos I'm also crocheting. I'm currently working on a body pillow for the hubby so maybe it can help his back.

But that's pretty much it. Nothing really exciting. Just me hiding from the heat. = )

Have a good day all and keep safe today.