RIP Logan

On my other blog, my stroke recovery blog, I talked about the piles Logan left for me on the carpet each morning and evening. It made walking in the small hallway between the rest of the house my bathroom and my bedroom a precarious adventure. It has been this way for months since I removed the litter box from my bathroom. It's not that he wasn't outdoor trained or that he couldn't get outside, it was because he was stubborn and liked the convenience of having a litter box right inside. He didn't have to brave whatever weather was outside.

His stools were noticeably loose. He had chewed his fur off leaving bald and sometime bloodied area of skin exposed, but he did that every summer. Usually, his thick black coat would return in the late fall and winter. He had allergies and was like this every year. He was a peculiar cat.  He was a Manx, born without a tail. Pure black with yellow eyes which reminded me of two moons shining on a black night. He was a beautiful cat. He belong to Mel's mother before she died so Mel inherited him.

He became a service cat. He could sense when your blood sugar was too high or too low. It was a perfect attribute for Mel's mother and me who both had diabetes. To everyone else, he was a pest because he would yowl and pester them until he got to smell their breath. If he sensed that the person's blood sugar was normal, he snuggled up to be petted or leave you alone. If your blood sugar was not normal, too high or too low, he'd bite you. Not hard at first, just enough to get your attention. If your ignored him, the bites and pestering would get more intense. He'd bite me long before I ever felt the symptoms of my blood sugar being too low. A much better glucometer than any brand and he didn't need batteries.

 Earlier this week, I was making the rounds of the household animals. I caught Logan crouched in the hallway ready to leave another present for me to step in or have to clean up. I yelled and literally at kicked him. My foot missed him by several inches. I would never hurt an animal on purpose  other than butchering them for our needs. I figured I'd made my point. He ran outside through the pet door. It was later in the evening, when I noticed he wasn't on the breakfast table with the other cats trying to grab some extra warmth from the wood stove. I asked Mel if she had seen him. She hadn't since earlier in the day.

The next morning, still no Logan. We both, Mel and I, canvassed the property looking for him. We eventually found his body by the wood shed. What exactly killed this cat, we have no idea. He must have been sicker than we thought. So we are down another cat on the homestead. Not that we are lacking puddy cats here. There is still Whirling Dervish, Flynn, Lil Bit, and Patches to keep us company.

Still, I'll miss Logan. Darn, now I've got to put batteries in my glucometer. I haven't had to worry about it in almost two years. Not that my blood sugar is that high anymore with my diabetes, but low blood sugar can kill you just as fast. RIP Logan.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Homestead Year End Summary 2017

What a difference a year makes, but then again not that much has changed over the past year. This year has flown by at record speeds. I've blogged it all since April 2016 with 81 posts here. The Cockeyed Homestead is better organized than when I first came here.

Some major and minor achievements in 2017...

1.  A driveway was installed to replace the washed out one that was here before. An additional 80 feet of new driveway along the side of the garden, house, and down to the chicken and rabbit areas. This has been a godsend and well worth the price.  All together 1/4 mile was sub-surfaced and graveled. My mini van thanks me every time I go out on it. Even though we have a large car park area in front of the barn, we no longer use it. Instead, we now park around back beside...
 
2.  The new deck and ramps off the back porch. It makes for easier access into the house, rabbitry, and chicken area. Now we have access to the screened porch from both sides. The ramp makes the transport of feed, and canned goods from the storage building much more easier for the both of us. Bringing firewood from the firewood sheds to the house is a breeze via a wagon. We have planted yellow mums under this deck section to prettify the area. We also planted spearmint and peppermint around the base of the storage building to deter rats.

3.  We contracted out the refurbishment of our water delivery from the well to the house. It meant a trencher and dozens of new PVC pipe all buried two-foot down. You may remember our previous "pipe" was flexible hose buried, in places, 6" below the surface and was constantly leaking, breaking, and freezing in winter.

4.  We added extra circuits to our power panel and had the electrician make sense to our two circuit boxes. The workshop/barn now has dedicated circuit breakers, and lights. We were using an extension cord from the house. The storage room also has it's own circuit to run the air conditioner, heater, and lights. A small freezer will be added later for frozen bunny water bottles and maybe a mini refrigerator for egg storage. The house also got some wiring and additions in the way of two new ceiling fans  with overhead lighting for the living and breakfast rooms, and a dedicated circuit to run the larger air conditioner in the living areas. Yippee!

5.  We had an additions to our homestead too! We bought twelve Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpington chicks in the spring to revamp our chicken flock after predators maimed or killed 3/4 of our New Hampshire Red chickens. As of today, we still have eight after culling out the roosters. We now get seven eggs a day and have plenty of chicken in the freezer and canned.

6.  We lost Bennie to a car incident and Devon Angel, but the Lord blessed us with Flynn. Other than Mel thinking she was a boy, she has been quite the character. She fits right into the Cockeyed Homestead Critter collection. You should see her playing in the rain and snow. Hilarious for a cat to do this. Everything is new and exciting for her and she knows no fear..only adventure and playfulness. At six months old, she still demands her Mama snuggles and follows Mel wherever she goes around the homestead.

7.  We lost three of Mel's original English Angoras, but bought five in the spring. We also changed our rabbitry set up. The storage building we originally had our angoras in is no more. The building was cleaned and converted into a food storage building for our home canned goods, root cellar, and staples storage.


8.  A quarter acre was cleared and terraced in preparation of a fruit and nut orchard. We are still laying cardboard and straw over the area in preparation of our organic orchard. Slated to go in are Muscadine and Catawba grapes, blueberry bushes, raspberry bushes, and blackberry vines in the spring. With apple, pear, cherry, fig, pecan, and black walnut trees to follow.

9.  Our garden has a major revamp. With the addition of the side driveway and the drive through area beside the barn, the garden now has definite borders. The trapezoid shaped area has had two feet of wood chips, cardboard, and straw added to the whole area. The raised beds are gone. Along the driveways will be straw bale garden beds. These areas were previously weeds and hard packed clay. They need intensive conditioning and soil improvements. The whole area will get a thick compost boost over winter for the 2018 growing season.

10.  The rabbitry was moved to the new rabbit barn. Mel built it with a broken wrist if you can believe that. The bucks are now housed in 24x36 cages along one side and the does are all in 30x36 cages along the opposite side. The grooming table is at the other end pictured with all their supplies and compartments for each rabbit's fur. When the grooming is finished the rabbits are allowed to run free within the barn. Two large hurricane type fans were added for their comfort and tarps were added to the ends for increment weather.

11.  The chickens also got their own enclosure. It is wired across the top and all around to make predator access more difficult. I'm not going to say predator proof because predator will find a way in no matter what you do. But they should be considerably safer this winter. The nesting boxes are accessible outside the enclosure which makes harvesting the eggs a simple matter of opening a hatch. We can still free range our birds too. This way they will stay out of our garden. Yeah!

12.  With the pick up of sixty cases of pint jars (free) from North Carolina, we actually have a food storage pantry. See #7. While the garden this year was lack luster in production, we made some new friends in the local produce market for produce to can. Some valuable contacts were also made for when we launch our own chemical free produce and products maybe as soon as next year.  While we are no where near filling all sixty cases, we are comfortable in what we have. Next year, we hope to have even more. It's a start. I can see needing another sixty cases of jars easily to supply our needs for a full year. While we aren't totally self reliant yet, we are on our way.

As I write this blog, I'm amazed about how much we actually got accomplished in 2017. It didn't seem like that much with long periods of hurry-up-and-waits. It's good to jot things down and look at accomplishments. Hindsight is twenty-twenty after all and we have been truly blessed in 2017.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Argh! It's Snowing!! Addendum

An addendum to my last post. I write my blogs early, sometimes the basic blog is written a month in advance. I'll add certain current points of interst before the blog publishes. I do this in part because it takes my stroke addled mind almost a week to write a blog and a few days more to edit it. Often, it will coincide with a publication of a video or draw attention to a video of YouTube except this year. Technical difficulties have kept us from doing videos since spring. Unlike this blog. Please ignore misspellings and grammar erroers. I didn't catch in two quick editing passes before publishing this. I'm still brain damaged.

In our preparing for winter, I forgot a key supply...batteries for our lanterns! But then, we have oil lanterns and oil as back-up for them. As you might have figured out, we lost power. From Friday night, the heaviest snow fall, until Sunday night. We were not alone. Some 20,000 households in our EMC (electric membership co-op) were in the same boat. Some 12,500 households are still without power. The Co-op estimates full power restoration by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Now, we heat our homestead with a wood stove and cook with gas. We are fortunate. Many other homes depend on electricity to heat and cook wth. A lot of our "quick fix meals" were home canned months ago and in the storeroom. No can opener needed just an old church key. Heat and eat or not. With nighttime temperatures dipping below freezing and daytime temperatures maybe ten degrees warmer, they are really in a tight jam by not only being in the dark but freezing as well. We keep 20 gallons of water in our storage shed, because the well does not run without electricity. We currently use 5 gallon buckets (6 of them) to catch rain water, or in this case snow melt, to flush the toilets with or at least wash our hands.

I found out something interesting about Mel during all this. She can't unplug. She's a dyed in the wool techie. Being ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and suffering SAD (seasonal affective depression). She can't live without power especially in winter. We ended up spending a good part of Saturday and Sunday at the local Mickey D's charging her two computer batteries, her phone, her Kindle and using their WiFi. Unlike getting hit by Irma, the whole county wasn't dark. There were quite a few businesses open. Like Lowe's where I picked up an 8-pk of D cell batteries.

Me, on the other hand, was content reading a gardening book, knitting, and talking with my Heavenly Father by oil lamp. I did find it difficult removing the globe and lighting the lamp in the wee hours of the morning, but nothing I couldn't overcome. Not that I didn't rush to my computer to check my emails once I knew power had truly been restored. I could just unplug.

After calling our EMC's power outrage reporting center multiple times since the blackout, their suggestion not ours. Each time we called, a real person answered every call. The person was apologetic, courteous, and gave us an update... for days now. Not a few times, but every six hours. Now, that's service! After the power was restored, we called the power outage reporting center once again. The customer service representative answered. We gave them Mel's name and address. But instead of complaining that our power was out, we thanked her for our power being restored. The rep was taken aback. She had a smile in her voice, and she thanked us for calling. We made her night.

Even though we were inconvenienced by the power outage by being homesteaders, prepared, self reliant, and proactive, for the most part, we adverted a disaster this could have caused. Now, knowing this new thing about Mel, I think a generator and/or solar panels and batteries might be in our future. At least, we'd have power to run our well or charge whatever Mel needs. I can't do anything about the WiFi unless we plug the modem into the generator for short periods of time to help her out. What do you think?

Y'all have a blessed day and we'll have a better one.

Cockeyed Laziness Stops Now

I've always said that I was fortunate that I didn't have a spouse that could do for me after my stroke for my recovery's sake. My husband was terminal ill and actually 18 months from dying when I had my first and second stroke. I had no choice, I had to recover as much as I could and fast. I relearned how to speak legibly, move, fetch, carry, cook, shop, clean, drive and be a full-time caregiver within six months. I had no choice. Amazing, but that in itself was a blessing. Everything was have to relearn it NOW!

Confession time and fast forward five years. I'm living in an environment with an able bodied roommate. I find myself "lazy." I'm no longer struggling to lift 30-50 lbs of animal feed. If I don't want to, Mel can do it. In fact Mel is doing a lot of things I used to do if I find it's too much of a struggle for me. This is a luxury I never knew when my husband was live.

Am I wrong to take advantage of this luxury? When I think of other stroke survivors out there living post stroke who've had this kind of support all along, I rationalize that I was due. But in truth, I'm just being lazy and not being my proactive self. To me, yes! It's the laziness of two syndrome setting in.

Not really, but this morning...

Take this morning for example. It was cold in the house. It was only 31 degrees for the night's low.The night's fire in the wood stove had burned out. There was nothing but ash in the hearth part. I left it, donned my sweatshirt and turned on my personal electric heater.  Mel has gotten me spoiled by always making sure there was enough wood inside to start a roaring fire until last night. I didn't run out to the front porch for firewood. My fingers were too cold to even sort through my morning medicines. In my rationalizing, self centered mind, it was Mel's fault for not bringing in enough wood to start a fire. It didn't matter that I had overslept. In fact, Mel woke up 30 minutes after I did. That almost never happens. Usually, by the time she wakes up, I'd started a fire, cooked breakfast, made her tea, had the bread or whatever started, and assorted other things.

In reality, I was lazy and full of self pity. I actually can see myself in the role of other stroke survivors out there now with others able to do for them. I did eventually set up Mel's breakfast tray after she started the fire and she was outside feeding the animals. A short year ago, I would have done all these things. The sad thing is that this behavior is becoming the norm for me now. Sure, I'll still sort out and help with the garden, care for the homestead critters, and cook. But now it's with lackluster enthusiasm. It's the laziness of two because there is someone else to do it for me.

I realized my laziness of two is causing more work for us this morning when I thought about how we set up the straw bales in the garden. In part, honestly it was a brain fart moment. When I brought in the last ten bales of wheat straw, I suggested putting cardboard down first under the bales. Mel decided to use weed cloth because it was easier. I didn't argue with her because I was tired and couldn't voice my reason for using the cardboard instead. This morning, it came to me crystal clear why I wanted cardboard under the bales and use the weed cloth in the walkways. It was a "Doh!" moment. Worms can't get through the weed cloth, the plant roots can't grow through it, and it won't decompose for decades. Now, we'll have to redo a whole 40' row. Made worse because the rain we had this week has soaked the bales so now they are twice as heavy. The composted straw bales were to enhance the decomposing wood  chips to build the soil. With the weed cloth down we would have had to remove the good composted bales in two years to add it to the wood chips after removing the barrier. So much for working smarter. But at least I caught my mistake before 40 bales of straw was down.

Another example of sheer laziness of two on my part has to do with the little shopping I do. I don't put the reusable shopping bags back in my car. As a result we get a those plastic bags. But there is a happy result with this laziness, I can spin Plarn (plastic yarn). With the plarn, I can knit or crochet market bags which I can use or sell. But it's more work on me and Mel. I still don't play well with scissors. Then, I have to spin it on my spinning wheel. Yes, I know you don't have to spin it to use it, but I have a stronger more consistent product to work with by spinning it. Part of me is still in the marketing mode that dictates a better product commands a better price point. So now, I'll have tan (grocery bags), blue (walmart bags) and white (pharmacy, Lowes, and Dollar Store bags) to work into plarn this winter as if I didn't have enough angora and sheep's wool to spin already. Oh, and all those little plastic bags filled with product, I only carry half of them inside...Mel gets the rest. It's the laziness of two.

In a way the luxury of the laziness of two has been a blessing. It's less wear and tear on me having someone else share the load. But when I start taking advantage of it, that's just not right. That's one thing I've got to change starting today. I'll be making A HUGE pot of beef, vegetable and barley soup tonight. I'll be canning the excess. Why? Because I can and it's less work later. Mel has to pick up a truckload of wood and cardboard today, so I'll keep her company and help as much as I can. Tomorrow morning I'll be out in the garden and orchard with her, sans two hours for a doctor's appointment. I'll be side by side working with her until weather stops us. The laziness of two stops right now. Together we can accomplish more as it should be.

We had snow this week! So it stopped most of the outdoor work. But the new loom I ordered came in so I'm knitting again.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Homesteading Dreams Versus Reality Two Years Later

Homesteading ain't cheap. Every penny earned is put back into the homestead in one form or another and then some. You are never out of wants or needs on the homestead. A better driveway for access to and around your property to save wear and tear on your vehicles. The well water delivery system to the house is on the fritz. A handyman with a trencher is needed. Digging  a trench with a shovel and pick axe several hundred feet is just too much work for ladies in their 60s. Gluing pieces of PVC pipe together is a no brainer. A tractor would be nice, but until you can afford one, you scrimp and save to buy one. We compromised and bought a used 17HP lawn tractor. Good quality seed (initially), setting up the garden area, gardening hand tools and maybe even a tiller so you can grow more. Clearing ten years of undergrowth and small trees where you want to put an orchard and grow your own rabbit grass/hay? A bobcat and operator is needed. Of course you could buy them outright and only have to worry about learning how to operate it, storing it, and the maintenance for it. It'll only set you back about $35,000 (that's used). Oh, electricity in the workshop/barn is almost a necessity because you can't run everything off an extension cord. Oh with electricity in the workshop/barn, we can actually install lights! That way we can use it any time. A rain catchment system to help with watering the animals and garden needs PVC pipe, gutters, downspouts, and something to hold the water in. Those big 275 gallon totes are cheap enough at $75 each delivered, but when you talk about 10 of them to provide your needs. It ain't cheap. Sigh! All of it only costs money and lots of it. It would be a steady drain on finances in the beginning and just maintenance.

If you get livestock, the housing, feed, and general care also costs money. As far as I know, none of it is free. I'll start with every homestead gateway into livestock... chickens. Whether you dream of producing fresh eggs for your own use or take the challenge of producing eggs for sale, it has a continual cost. Sure you can frequent Craig's List and find someone giving away chickens ...mostly roosters which may be fine for meat but you don't get eggs from roosters. Or, maybe even a chicken coop. You still have to provide them with a safe environment to do their chicken stuff. This mean predator proofing your property or a small portion of it for the chickens. Fencing against predators don't come cheap. We mostly free ranged our half a dozen New Hampshire Reds for two years. They roosted on our front porch at night. Our property is not fenced. We were doing it cheap. Last winter and early spring, predators reduced our flock down to two hens. But it was spring, everybody sold chicks. We repopulated our flock with a dozen Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons. They were all one big happy family decimating my garden and going where they pleased. Organic feed ain't cheap and we were supplementing their diet with commercial organic feed. We started losing hens after the rooster culling to predators. We are down to seven hens out of twelve, two New Hampshire Reds (Gimpy and the other injured one), three Rhode Island Reds and two Buffs. There went my dream of selling eggs this year. The certification you paid to be able to sell your eggs is wasted for another year. So we built them an enclosure and coop for them. It only cost money, right?

We fell in love with angora rabbits early on. It was hoped that it would bring income into the homestead by way of fur/yarn/babies sales. Adding five new English Angora rabbits to the rabbitry was the first step. The fact that all five were related (mother, father, and three babies) didn't matter because we had others who were related to breed to. That was until our original angoras died before the newly purchased does reached breedable age (for us 1 year old). Now our angoras are related so no babies which are the biggest money maker (on average $400 per litter x 5 does). It would have easily paid our property taxes, electricity and feed bills for a year.

Losing my buck American Chinchilla this past spring, stopped my meat rabbit production. Mel's adversity to butchering rabbits has kept me from purchasing a new breeding trio. She didn't have to butcher them, I did that. But she preferred cuddling all rabbits. She'd even cuddle the wild cottontails if she could catch them. So we are out of the meat raising side of the rabbitry. A shame too! I do love me some rabbit almost as much as I like venison. We've seen deer on our property all year long, but now that it's deer season...not a cute face to be seen. Sigh! At least, there is an abundance of squirrels to feed the dogs with.

Striving to be sustainable and self reliant is a costly proposition on this homestead. The best laid plans versus the reality is a huge difference. We've had our shares of ups and downs over the past two years. While Mel has been out of work for a year, stuff is getting done on the homestead. She does the manual labor and I foot the bill. It seems like an even trade. Meanwhile, we are planning the third year's growth of our Cockeyed Homestead. Plans are being made for a bigger garden, one that will fulfill our needs for a year without having to purchase extra from surrounding farms. The groundwork for the orchard's five-year plan is underway. While it is slow going now, soon we'll see the fruits of our labor.

My original five-year plan is out the window. But our lives have been enriched by the journey so far. We are happier and healthier than ever before. Mel's depression is starting to be offset by faith. I still expect the SAD to be bad this year, but not as bad as last year. I can see God working and so can she. That makes a huge difference. How bad it really gets, I'll just have to wait and see. I just may have to runaway for a couple of months because I'm not going to put up with it again. I hate to do it but I have to love me too.

So that's it for my reality check.

Y'all have a blessed day.