It's Official

We are officially in a drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. And let me tell you, it is dry here. I have never seen it like this around here before. All the grass is brown and completely dead, all the farmers are feeding hay (including me). The drive out to our house is crazy because of all of the brown fields. My ponds are the lowest I have ever seen them, the smaller one is almost completely dry.

Here is the drought map to prove it (you can click it to make it bigger). We are in the light brown (drought moderate) in the northwest corner.

Where's the Kitty

As you who read the blog know, we had kittens a while back. We gave away all but one of them. The one we kept is starting to get big and he is at that really playful age so he is a lot of fun. We are still discussing names for him. I think Smalls might be the leading candidate right now, with Goodbye a close second.

Big Milestone

Something big happened today. We went to Mena for the weekend and on our way back while on interstate 540, between Chester and the tunnel, our car hit 100,000 miles. It is our CRV that we bought brand new in 2004. It is the first car we bought together. It has been a great car for us, Margo loves driving it. I hope it goes for another 100,000

I thought I would give a brief description of where it's been and what it has been through in it's 100,000 miles. Besides taking us all around Northwest Arkansas, it has been to the far reaches of Arkansas, to Mena tons of times, Little Rock a bunch of times, Dallas, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus (OH), Nashville (TN), Omaha, and many other lesser known cities. It has been in a wreck where a guy sideswiped it and it has hit a deer (both while Margo was driving).

Here is a picture of when we bought it and brought it home.

Here is today on the way home. Yes, I took the picture while driving (it is against the law to text while driving, not take pictures while driving). What is most amazing is I am only going 70 on the interstate (I slowed down for safety while taking the picture).

Death of a Farm

It seems that every year we have a period of the summer where it gets really dry and does not rain for a while. Well, we are experiencing that right now. Every year I think it is the worst it's ever been. I don't know if that is the case or not but it sure feels like it again this year. We have not had rain in several weeks here on the farm. There have been lots of pop up showers around the area but none of them have been here. The grass is mostly brown and dead. There are still a few spots in wetter type areas that still have a little green grass for the animals to eat. If it does not rain soon though, I will have to start feeding hay to the animals. Another thing that is dead is the garden. I tried to keep it going for a little while but it was just taking to much watering so I let it go. Luckily I was able to keep it going long enough to get all the veggies we needed to can and freeze for the rest of the year. If it ever rains again, I may plant some stuff for a fall garden. The only thing that I am still keeping alive is the cantaloupe and watermelon. Here is a picture of the last thing I got out of the garden, the butternut squash and spaghetti squash.

And here is a picture of a couple cantaloupe.

The natives are getting to comfortable

This is a picture looking out the back window. (that's a deer, not a goat)

Since we moved in and put up fence, cleared land, etc., we have hardly ever seen deer on our property. Sometimes you would see them back up behind the house on the hill in the winter but never near the house. But, the past month or so, two doe's have been right behind the house like it is no big deal. I just hope they don't get so comfortable that they get in the yard or garden and eat our plants. Otherwise, we might be having deer steaks soon.

Chicken Stimulus

I bought some new chickens over the weekend. Our current chickens are getting older and not laying as well and we have lost some of them to varmints a while back. I am not sure what varmints because I never caught any of them, but I think it could have been hawks. Anyway, back to the new chickens story. I took a couple of our goats that were born this year up to the Centerton Livestock Auction to sell on Saturday. I happened to get up there right when they were having the poultry sale. I decided to check it out to see how much the chickens were going for and they happened to be going for really cheap. So, I just had to buy some to replenish our numbers. I ended up buying 15!!!!! Oops (I am supposed to be trying to save money these days). After buying a few I realized that I did not have a cage to hold chickens with me so I had to buy a cage also. Luckily they had some they were auctioning off and they were pretty cheap. The chickens I bought are a little younger and may not be laying eggs yet but they should be soon. I got them for around $3 each which is really cheap. Usually these chickens go for $10+ each. I am not sure why they were so cheap, I guess the economy effects chicken sales also. And they probably have not been getting any stimulus money at the Livestock Auction......trade in your old inefficient chickens for new energy efficient ones. Now that would be a sweet deal.