We don't seem to have a lot to blog about these days. Not much has been going on besides the daily grind of work. Margo was gone all last week to Iowa for work. I am glad she is back now. There is not much happening on the farm either. Just doing lots of little things. The garden is coming along. So far I have planted garlic, onions, sugar snap peas, corn, green beans, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloup, and luffa gourds. Tomorrow I am going to plant my tomatoes and peppers. I will try to post some pictures when everything starts growing. Today, I took most of the day off from work because one of the doctors I work with called in sick so we canceled clinic and there was nothing for me to do so I went home. It was nice and it helped me catch up on doing some stuff around the farm. Margo took off as well because she had lots of extra hours from last week. One of the things I did today is burn a couple of brush piles. One of the brush piles I had stacked around an old dead tree trunk that was still standing so that when I burned the pile it would burn down the tree as well. It was really fun, Margo and I sat and watched it burn until the tree trunk fell over. It was very exciting. That is the kind of thing that is fun to me, not video games and ipods, just watching a big tree trunk burn. I took some pictures so all of you could see.
Here is the brush pile after it had burned down quite a bit. You can see the tree trunk was pretty tall, the whole thing is on fire at this point.
Here is a closer shot of the top part.
And here is an even closer shot right before it fell, it had burned through the middle where you could see through it while it was on fire. I think this is a really cool picture.
I decided to restock my pond a little bit. I want to make sure that there are always plenty of catfish in my pond because that is what people like to catch the most and Margo and I catch them and eat them occasionally. On Saturday, the fish truck was at the Farmers Co-op so I went and bought some fish. I bought 50 6"-8" catfish and 100 bluegill. The catfish will eat the small bluegill while they are growing and the bluegill that survive are fun and easy to catch. I already have some full size blue gill in the pond. I decided to put about 10 catfish and some of the bluegill in my other little pond that I share with the neighbor just to see how they do. You are all welcome to come out and fish anytime. Here is a pic of the little catfish.
In other news, Margo is gone this week to some training so it is just me and the animals. I planted some in the garden today without a shirt on and got sunburned. It is this kind of thing that makes me appreciated having another person around. It is next to impossible to put aloe on your own back and the goats aren't much help with it either.
In case any of you have not heard, George W. and congress have decided to give us a stimulus package this year (May). Margo and I as a couple will be receiving $1200. I have mixed feelings on the stimulus package. I understand that they are doing it; to try to help the economy do better. The main problem I have with it is the little letters they sent out that I am sure you all received that told you that you will be getting an extra tax refund stimulus and that all you have to do is file your normal tax return. The problem I have with that is that it cost over $42 million to mail those letters out and unless you live under a rock you already knew that you were getting it. I think that was a big waste of taxpayer money and useless government spending that could be used for better things like education, roads, or reducing the national debt. But don't get me wrong, I do like to get the unexpected money. The other thing I am worried about is if this stimulus is actually going to help much. I am not an economist so I don't have any expertise on this matter. I do hope that you all use all or at least a portion of it to buy some stuff since that is what it is intended for. I understand if you need to pay off debt because that is more important but if not I think everyone should spend the money so it might help the economy because that would be good for everyone. And to take it one step further if you do decide to spend it, try to use it to by stuff made in America. Normally, I don't really pay attention to where stuff is made but I think in this instance it would be most beneficial to buy American since it's main purpose is to help our economy. If you buy something made in China or Mexico, it will help our economy some but it will also help that country's economy and if it is made here it is a win, win, win for the U.S. Ok, this is becoming to long of a post and I have not even got to my main point yet. So today, I spent part of my stimulus money (yes, I am already spending it and it has not arrived yet). We have been wanting to buy a small trailer for a while. We haul a lot of stuff and it would make it a lot easier to have my own trailer. We had been looking for a while mostly in the classifieds for a used one. Today, I found a new one that was actually cheaper than any I had seen for sale used. I bought it at Ranalli Farm Equipment in Tontitown. It is 10'x6' and has a tilt bed. I wanted a tilt bed because it makes it easier to load and unload stuff like lawn mowers and 4-wheelers because you don't need ramps. Here is a pic of it.
Let me know if any of you need help hauling something. I wanted to give a shout out to my father-in-law David for his expertise and coming with me to look at the trailer. I also wanted to give a shout out to George and our friends on the Hill for the stimulation.
Here on the Farm of Hale the past few days we have had some firsts. To start with, I got my first tick of the season which is a sure sign of spring. It was attached to the back of my leg. We usually don't have too much of a problem with ticks or chiggers because of the chickens. They do a good job of controlling all the bugs around the farm. Another first I had this weekend, that further proves the arrival of spring, is I saw my first snake of the season. Last year I killed 5-7 snakes on the farm including a couple water snakes, a couple king snakes, a hognose snake, and the only poisonous one- a copper head. I hope to not have as many this year because I have cleared out a lot of the underbrush and snakey type areas and I have more animals this year which helps to keep snakes away. Anyway, back to the snake I saw yesterday. It was just a garter snake which isn't a bad snake but I tend to kill all snakes good or bad. This one got away before I could get something to kill it though. Garter snakes are the first snakes to emerge in the spring (don't you love the little educational tidbits I put in my posts).
Our other first is food related. We have started doing about half our grocery shopping at Sam's Club. We did price comparison and found that at least half the stuff we buy is cheaper for us to get at Sam's. Anyway, we heard a couple weeks ago from Margo's dad that Sam's was about to start using new milk jugs. (Her dad works for Dairy Farmers of America). Well, they had them today when Margo bought groceries. Here is a pic of the new jug she got today.
Here is what we know about why they are using these new jugs. They don't require the milk crates to hold them and haul them since they are box shaped. All they do is put them on a pallet- they stack one layer on top of the other with just a piece of cardboard in between the layers. They also don't use racks at the store anymore to hold the milk. They just put a pallet of milk in the cooler at the store and you just take one off and when a layer is gone, they remove the cardboard in between and start a new layer. This saves them from having a person put the milk in the crates, stack the crates on a pallet, unstack the crates at the store, and put the jugs in the racks. I think it is a pretty good idea and design. It will probably take some getting used to by consumers but so far I like the new jug just fine. I like that the hole is on one corner of the jug, this requires less tipping and aim to get the milk into my glass than with the old jugs. The new jug is also less transparent as well which helps the milk last longer and it says it uses less shelf space.
I thought I would take a break from talking about the farm and recommend some music and a movie for all of you.
To start with I wanted to recommend some music and a movie to all of you. The first music I wanted to recommend is a girl named Regina Spektor . We have been listening to her for several months and we really dig her music. We saw her on Letterman one night and loved it and now have a couple of her albums. She is starting to get pretty popular, her music has been used for some commercials and movies. Click here to go to her myspace page and listen to some of her music. The next band I wanted to tell you about is Arcade Fire. They are an indie rock band and their music is excellent and their lyrics are amazing. Our friend Ben got us hooked on them. They have like 6+ people in the band and on stage playing all kinds of instruments like violins, horns, accordion, and others. They have played with some really good people like Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie as well. Their newest album, Neon Bible is our favorite. Here is a video of them playing one of their songs with David Bowie.
And the final music recommendation I have for you is a new album. The group is called She and Him. The she part of the group is ZooeyDeschanel. She is the main actress in the movie Elf that sings. I thought her voice was amazing in the movie and hoped that she would do some music sometime and she finally has. A big thanks to Travis for putting it on his blog and letting us know about it. She has been in several other good movies and is going to be the main actress in M. Night Shyamalan'snew moving The Happening coming out in June. Click here to go to their myspace page and listen to some of their music.
I also wanted to recommend a movie to all of you as well in case some of you may not have heard of it yet. I think everyone would like this movie. It is called Once. It is an independent type movie and is about a singer songwriter guy that meets a girl and they form a relationship and make some music together. The whole movie is so great and the music is truly awesome. It is music that the main characters actually wrote and played. They won an Oscar for best original song in a motion picture. I really want all of you who have not seen it to go out and rent it, it is one of those movies that just make you feel great and everyone should see it. (You may have to turn on subtitles because their accents are a little hard to understand at times.)
Let me know what you think about all these people and feel free to leave suggestions for me on music or movies.
It is now officially spring. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have planted so far that are starting to grow. I am really excited about everything starting to grow and look forward to having everything in my garden.
First, here is a picture of my garlic. You may be thinking that it is really big to be so early in the spring. Well, there is a reason for that. I have found that the best time to plant garlic is in the late fall. It is cold and freeze tolerant and planting it in the fall gives it a jump start for when spring comes around. Therefore the garlic turns out a lot bigger at harvest by planting in the fall as opposed to planting in the spring. A random bit of information for you about garlic....Elephant garlic which is what a lot of people plant because it gets really big is not a garlic but it is a leek that tastes like garlic.
I also have planted onions and sugar snap peas down in the garden and they are starting to come up.
Here is a picture of my strawberries. I planted them last year in a garden bed I put right behind the house. They are doing pretty good. They would be a lot better but last year I left one of the gates open by accident and the goats got in and ate the strawberries to the ground. Luckily it did not kill them, but it they are just now back to where they were before the goats ate them so it set them back about a year as far as production goes.
I also put in my other berries this year. They are in the yard behind the house in a weird little raised area that was already there. It was a difficult place to mow so I decided to make it the place where I plant my berries. I am also building a rock wall between that area and the house (I will post pictures of that when I get it done). I planted 6 blueberry plants and 6 blackberry plants. I may also grow some melons in that area to help fill space.
Also in the bed with the strawberries, I decided to try to plant some lettuce. I figured having it close would make it easier to get when we wanted it. I planted a mixed lettuce leaf seed mix. It is growing pretty well, I may have planted it a little late but I think it will produce fine. It also rained 8 inches after I planted it so I think some of the seeds got washed away.
My big planting project of the past 2 weeks is grass. I have been clearing out the lower part of our land this winter and last fall in hopes of getting more grass growing and therefore be able to have more grass eating animals. When we moved in, the land was mostly wooded with some grassy spots and my goal for this year was to double the amount of grass on the property. The first planting of grass I did was in February. I had come across an article about frost seeding so I thought I would try it out. It involves spreading the seed in early February when we are having a frost about every night and then it warms up during the day. This repeated freezing and thawing cycle works the seed into the ground. All I have to do is spread it and if it comes into contact with the ground it will work itself into the ground, I don't have to break up the ground or cover it with dirt or anything. The forage this process works best with is clover which is really good for grass eating animals. Anyway, to my surprise, it worked really well and the clover came up and is growing. Also throughout the winter I would spread seed where I was feeding hay to the animals. Then, a couple weeks ago I started planting some pasture mix grass seed. The mix has alfalfa, orchard, fescue, annual rye, perennial rye, and clover seeds. We have planted about 150 pounds of seed so far. This involves Margo and I breaking up the ground where we are planting, spreading the grass seed and then raking over it. I hope a good portion of it comes up and survives because this will enable us to get more animals. Here is a close-up pic of some that is already coming up. If you click on the picture it makes it big and looks a lot cooler.
Margo started a new hobby a month or so ago. She has taught herself how to knit using an instructional book. She picked it up pretty fast. So far she has made some dishcloths and a scarf and they turned out good. I am not sure what all she is planning on making but don't be surprised if for Christmas next year some of you get a present knitted by Margo. Here is a pic of her modeling some of her creations (aka scarf and dishcloth).
This past weekend was very enjoyable and busy and I thought I would share about all the festivities. Trav and Kate were in town so on Friday night we went out and ate with them and Martha at Taste of Thai. It was really good food and fun hanging out. After dinner, we went to Todd's and watched the Razorbacks beat Indiana in the NCAA tournament. On Saturday Margo and I did some work around the farm (burned some brush, planted grass seed) and went into town and bought some stuff for the garden and flower beds. In the afternoon, our friend Josh A. brought his 2 kids (Evan and Lucy) out to see the animals and hang out. I think the kids really enjoyed it, Evan especially like our new cat Hello who is getting very big. They seemed to really bond. Here are some cute pics of Evan and Lucy.
On Sunday was the highlight of the weekend (for me anyway). Josh A. was the recipient of 4 tickets to the NCAA regional games in Little Rock for Sunday. So, Josh, me, and two other guys left Sunday morning and went down to Little Rock and watched the two games going on yesterday. The seats were on the 10th row which was awesome. The first game was Texas vs. Miami and then Memphis vs. Mississippi State. The games were very exciting and lots of fun. Overall, it was a really fun trip and nice to get away for a day and watch some great basketball in person. The weekend was filled full of good times (except for the razorbacks getting killed by North Carolina yesterday) and it sucked to have to go back to work today and to make it worse Margo is gone again this week so I am lonely.
Yesterday, I built a new cage that fits in the back of my truck that I will use to haul animals. It takes up basically all of the bed of the truck in between the wheel wells. It was another one of my projects to get done with our tax refund money. It is made out of chain link gates I bought at Lowe's that just happened to be the right size for the back of my truck. My old cage I made out of scrap wire and wood. It did it's job but this one is much better looking, more solid, lightweight, and should last longer. Here is a picture of Margo and Macy trying it out.
I also thought I would share some St. Patrick's Day cheer with you. A friend of mine (Travis) had this video on his blog. It is very, very funny. I watched it like 5 times in a row the first time I saw it. I don't think it could have come out any better if you scripted it.
I have several pictures I have been wanting to display on the blog. I didn't really want to make a separate post for each one of them so I have decided to make a post of random pictures from the past month or so. Here you go.
About a month ago, our good friends Walt and Annie were in town and we were able to meet up with them and hang out for a while. We also went out with them to a fancy restaurant to eat so we dressed up slightly. We usually don't dress nice when we go out, so I thought I would post the picture. I would like to give a shout out to Kristy for taking the picture.
Something that we think is great and amazing about our farm is that all our animals get along. The dogs and goats get along, the chickens and the dogs, the cats and the ducks, the cow and the goats. Everyone gets along with everyone else which is really nice. Today when I was outside I saw the baby goats playing king of the mountain on the cow while he was laying down. I thought it was really funny so I took a picture. Isn't the cow a good sport. Also, the other day, I saw a chicken on top of the cow picking bugs off of him but I didn't get a picture.
This winter, I decided to let my hair grow out a little. The other day I decided to cut it back short since it is getting warmer. Anyway, it has been a big debate around the house (I like it short, Margo likes it longer), and at work, and with friends as to whether I look better with long or short hair. So, I thought I would post a picture of it each way and let you, the reader of the blog, vote for which is the best.
Here it is a couple weeks ago right before I cut it short.
Here it is after I cut it.
A week or so ago some friends from work came out to see the baby goats. While trying to entertain the kids I decided to show them a big bone I had found on our property. I think it is a pelvic bone from a big animal. They liked it a lot. Anyway, one of the adults suggested I put it on my head so I did of course, and this is what it looked like. It is a pretty funny picture. I think it kind of looks like the crazy rabbit thing from Donnie Darko.
And finally, here is a cool picture of the duck that Margo took the other day.
I spent this weekend building the goats a new shelter. This was one of my projects I wanted to get done before spring came. Part of the reason I wanted to build it is because I am putting up an electric fence as a cross fence. This will help in separating the animals when need be, such as when I want to wean the baby goats from their mothers or keeping the billy goat away from the nannies to control when they get bred. I am also working on planting new grass so I can keep the animals off the part I am planting to give it a chance to get established well before the animals start grazing on it. I built this on the opposite side of the property from the barn. It is 8'x8' and 5' tall at the highest. It turned out alright, definitely not my best work (due to some bad measurements and planning) but it will serve it's purpose.
In this picture you can see our house in the background.
I finally finished my book for February. If you keep up with this blog you know one of my (Josh) new years resolutions was to try to read more and try to read a book a month. This month I picked out a really long book to read and it took me all month plus a couple days. The book I picked was East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is my favorite author, I read several of his books when I was younger but never this one (probably because it was so long (600 pages)). Our friend Erika suggested it and said it was one of her favorites and I like her tastes on other things so I decided to try it. I really enjoyed it. It covers a couple generations of two interwoven families and is set in the Salinas Valley in California. One of the families, the Hamilton's, is based on Steinbeck's maternal grandfather and his family. Steinbeck considered this book to be his life's greatest work which is pretty impressive. The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the the book of Genesis in the Bible, especially the story of Cain and Abel. My favorite character was Samuel Hamilton and while reading the book I found myself wanting to be more like him. Any of you looking for a good book to read should check it out. We got the movie East of Eden with James Dean to watch tonight.
Yesterday we had another baby goat born. This will be our last one for a few weeks I think. This baby's mom usually has 2 babies but this year only had one but she made up for it for how big this baby is, it is the biggest newborn baby goat I have ever seen and I am not exaggerating. The only bad thing is that it is a billy so we will get rid of it. We will either sell it or try to find a 4H kid or FFA kid that wants to show a goat at the fair to give it to. This baby looks like it is a couple months old already, I wish I had scales to weigh it. Have I said yet that it is a huge newborn. Now for what you have all been waiting for, some pictures.
Here it is standing next to one of the babies born 1.5 weeks ago, it is the one behind. Only 1 day old.
Here it is standing next to its mom, most baby goats can stand under their mom to nurse but he has to kneel down to make it under. He is a really good looking kid.
We love movies, I really love movies. I am indifferent on most TV watching, we haven't had cable or satellite since we got married but we watch movies very often. Anyway, tonight are the Oscars and many of you may not read this until after they are over, but, yesterday Fiesta Square Theater had a special Oscar Best Picture marathon. They showed all 5 movies nominated for best picture back to back on one screen for one day. It cost $30 for the day (which is a lot cheaper than going to them individually) and you got unlimited popcorn. We don't go to movies in the theater very often but just could not pass this up. The first movie started at 11am and the last one ended at 11pm, for those of you who aren't good at math, that is 12 hours of movie watching in the theater. It was a crazy, awesome day. We talked our friends Adam and Sarah into going with us which made it even more enjoyable. Luckily there are restaurants around there so we could go eat in between movies. We got these special lanyard passes to where around our neck that made me feel very important. They even did trivia in between movies and gave out prizes. It was a lot of fun and a cool thing to say that we did. If you don't already know, the movies nominated are Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno, and No Country for Old Men. I thought I would let you all know which one I think should win Best Picture and see if the Oscar gods agree. First, let me say that I don't think that Michael Clayton or Atonement should have been nominated. They were good but not great and it seems like that same story has been done in other movies just in different ways. I would much rather have seen Sweeney Todd or The Lives of Others nominated. Juno is my favorite of those nominated and the one I would most likely buy and recommend to other people. But the movie I think should win Best Picture however is There Will Be Blood. I really thought it was excellent and was excellently made. I also think that Daniel Day Lewis should win for best actor for his performance in it. So, there you have it, we will see what happens tonight.
We had another goat have babies. This goat was one of the ones we got from our friend Travis when he moved to Ohio. She had 2 babies, 1 boy and 1 girl but only the girl survived. The little boy was really small and weak and I think had some problems. We brought him inside to try to save him but he just never could do anything on his own, even nurse. It looked like he was blind as well. I am not sure what was wrong with him. It was sad but it is good the girl survived, especially because she is worth more to us and we will keep her on the farm. Any boys we have will be sold in the spring sometime. Here is a couple pics of her for you.
The new goat is the white and brown one. The goat in green I have had for over 5 years
As a federal employee, I get quite a bit of vacation time, a lot more than Margo. So, sometimes I take a week off just so I can spend a week getting some stuff done around the farm. This is one of those weeks. I had several things that I have been wanting to get done that take some time to get done. I had also been waiting to do some of these things for when we got our tax return back so we could use a portion of the money to do some of the expensive projects. Some of those things aren't very fun, such as I have been digging ditches and moving dirt to improve some drainage issues. I also cleaned out the manure from the barn. This took like 4 truckloads and was very tiring. I put most of it on an area where I am going to plant blueberries and blackberries this year and some on the garden. Another thing I did the other day that was pretty fun was build some railings for our porch. It is now much more kid friendly by preventing them from falling off and killing themselves. Our deck had railing all the way around but on the side portion it only had the top rail and not the in between rails. Some parts of it are 6 feet off the ground and would hurt if someone fell off. We have had a friend's dog jump of this portion and do a nosedive into the ground. Here is a before picture with Macy assisting to show you what it was like. You can see the safe railing on the front but for some reason the people who built it were ok with falling off the side.
Here is the after picture, after I have built the railing and installed it. Unfortunately they did not have pre-built railings that I could just nail in, I had to build each section completely.
Now, all of you with kids can feel a little more comfortable that your child won't die on the Farm of Hale.
The biggest and most expensive project of the week was completed yesterday. Since building my rock wall and removing some old landscaping to make more parking, I have been wanting to have some gravel brought in to make the driveway and parking areas better and more clean looking. My boss's husband gave me the name of a guy here in West Fork that hauls gravel, so I called him and he and his friend (who smooths the gravel with his tractor) came by and gave me an estimate on how much gravel it would take and the cost. It was more than I hoped but still within our budget for this project. They came out yesterday and brought 4 dump truck loads of gravel and then smoothed it all out nice and level. I am so glad I hired the tractor guy as well because he did a great job and it would have been way to much for me to do by hand or even with a tractor. Here are some before and after pics, it is so amazing the difference it made and I am very happy we had it done. The pictures don't do it justice.
Here is the driveway
Here is in front of the shop and by the rock wall
Here is the where Margo and I park in front of the house.
So, there are some of the things I have been doing so far on my "vacation". I am so worn out that I am about ready to go back to work for a rest.
Crazy Goat finally had her babies. She had them yesterday, which was nice because we were home and Margo was present for the birth. Earlier in the day, we saw that she had some pre-birth grossness hanging out of her female goat area so we put her in the barn where it was warm and dry. She had two girls (which means we will keep both of them) and did not have any problems having them. They are doing very well and I will probably let them out of the barn tomorrow because they are already starting to get a little rambunctious. I had hoped that they would have really cool coloring like their mother but they ended up looking more like their father. They are very cute though. Feel free to come out and see them. We will probably have more babies in the next few weeks. Here are some pics.
This one was the biggest of the two and has more brown spots.
Here is the other one.
The cow needed to check out the new additions and sniff and lick them a little.
Congratulations to Chrissi at my work. She won the second annual goat pool.
I was tagged by one of my favorite people, Kathy, to list 6 quirky things about myself. I guess you would call this a chain blog post. Someone makes a list and then "tags" someone else to make a list on their blog and therefore learn more about fellow bloggers/friends. We have found the lists on our friend's blogs very interesting so far. Things like Kristy and her comfort coke and pillowcase sniffing, Travis (high school friend) and his cardboard hatred, Emily and her prison obsession, Sarah's air typing, and Kathy's mowing. I did not realize how crazy people I know are. I told Margo that I don't have hardly any crazy quirky things that I do. She severely disagreed. So, here is the list of 6 quirky things about myself that Margo suggested.
1. I don't like to put q-tips in my ears dry, I have to wet them with water first. For some reason I hate the feeling and sound of dry cloth in my ears.
2. I don't like to hear girls peeing. I know that sounds a little odd since it seems like I should only be hearing Margo pee. But, at work, I have a small bathroom connected to the clinic room I work in most of the time. People use it pretty often. For some reason hearing guys pee does not bother me at all, but hearing girls pee kind of weirds me out. I promise it is a different sound.
3. I like for my toiletries to change with each new one. Like when I run out of shampoo and have to start a new bottle, I don't like to use the same kind again, I like to switch to a different kind or at least a different flavor. I don't mind using the same one some other time but not immediately after. That goes for toothpaste as well and if I got my choice it would be the same for soap and deodorant. I can use the same kind time after time but I really don't like to. Margo forgets sometimes and gets the same kind and I don't like it but I use it.
4. For some reason I hold whatever I am drinking in my mouth. This usually only happens when I am casually sipping on a beverage and not when I am chugging because I am really thirsty. I will take a sip in my mouth and hold it in there for anywhere between 5-20 seconds before I swallow. I am not sure but I may be holding it in there until it becomes the same temperature as the inside of my mouth.
5. I don't like the feeling of dry cloth in my mouth. I am not faced with this very often but when I it does happen, I freak out. Growing up when you would loose teeth and would bite down on a washcloth to help with the bleeding. I always had to wet it before sticking in my mouth. The main time I am faced with this now is at the dentist. I don't have the best teeth in the world and have spent a lot of time getting work done the past couple years. I don't mind getting shots in my mouth or them drilling or doing other work on my teeth but if they stick a dry gauze in to help keep my mouth dry or whatever when they are doing work, I will freak out. Luckily most of the time when they do this I am numb and can't tell but sometimes I am not numb and it about kills me. I get a terrible look on my face and break out in sweats. The dentist always thinks I am hurting or something but I have to explain that I just hate having dry gauze in my mouth.
6. I am an anti-packrat. I hate, hate clutter. I can handle temporary clutter like a stack of bills or dishes or clothes or with sentimental items. What I hate is keeping things just to be keeping them. If we are not using it currently, it gets thrown away or gotten rid of. I go through on at least a monthly basis and reorganize the house and get rid of stuff. I get rid of clothes we don't wear, things we don't use, decorations we don't use, movies we don't watch often. One of the big things I do that drives Margo crazy is reorganizing the kitchen. I will go through and try to make things more organized and downsize things. I get rid of kitchen tools/utensils we don't use, I only keep a small number of those free plastic cups, food that has been in the cabinets for to long gets thrown out. A lot of people's refrigerators are packed with food, drinks, condiments, and other things. Our fridge looks bare because I get rid of things we don't use or haven't used in a while and only keep what we need and are actively using. I am always bugging Margo, trying to get her to get rid of stuff and she is always trying to get me to stop getting rid of stuff. I am not a clean freak per say, I just don't like clutter and unused things lying around in closets, garages, and other places.
As for other people I want to tag to do this on their blogs. I would like for everyone who hasn't done it already to do it because it is very interesting. I especially am looking forward to Martha's, Trav's, and John's.
For those of you who don't know, Margo works for an organization called ATTRA. It is a non-profit sustainable agriculture information service funded by the USDA. They have offices throughout the U.S. and one of them is in Fayetteville. It is a great place for farmers to get resources and publications on how to do farm related things to make them more sustainable and profitable (all of you farmers and gardeners out there should check it out). Margo is one of their livestock specialist, and her main specialty is goats. This makes me proud because I love goats. Anyway, she goes to lots of conferences and even gets to speak at some of them and do presentations and stuff like that. Well, she was at one up in Missouri a few weeks ago and a farm news program was there covering it and did a piece on meat goats. The name of the show is "This Week in Agribusiness" and it comes on some local TV stations throughout the U.S. and on cable and satellite on RFD TV. Margo and one of her co-workers, Linda, got interviewed for the segment and were on the show. Many of you may not get the show so I thought I would post the video here for you to see (they posted the interview on youtube).
On a totally other and random subject. As some of you may know, The Late Show with David Letterman is one of my favorite shows and has been for probably 10+ years. I love the show and think Letterman is very funny. We have been to see his show a few times in New York, and actually were almost on the show, we even got taped but the producers decided not to do it. I can tell any of you who have not heard that story some other time. Back to my point of this, Letterman has been doing this bit every night for the past few weeks in his beginning standup routine making fun of Mitt Romney. I am not anti Mitt Romney or anything but this bit was really funny and I wanted to share it with any of you who do not watch Letterman. Basically, Letterman gives a lot of examples of who Mitt Romney looks like. Here is a pic for reference.
Here is a condensed list of Letterman's people Mitt Romney looks like.
He looks like the guy that winks at you when he shakes your hand. Mitt looks like a guy wearing a golf shirt in an Eddie Bauer catalogue. He looks like the owner of the steakhouse who keeps interrupting dinner to find out how things are going. He looks like the desk clerk at a hotel who tells you your room's not ready. Mitt looks like the guy at a party who gives you his card. He looks like a tennis pro at a restricted country club. Mitt looks like a guy modeling briefs on a package of underwear. He looks like that guy on a Father's Day ad for Norelco. He looks like a guy on cable urging you to tap your home equity. He looks like an American President in a Canadian movie. He looks like the medical expert in a infomercial. He looks like the guy who promises accident victims he'll get the money they deserve. He looks like the guy on the 'Just For Men' bottle" He looks like the guy who tells you how to buy real estate with no money down. He looks like a cosmetic surgeon who gets ambushed on '60 Minutes.' He looks like the photo that comes with the frame. He looks like a guy who would run a seminar on condo flipping. He looks like a weekend weather man. He looks like the neighbor who spends way too much time on his lawn Mitt Romney looks like that guy on the golf course in the Levitra commercial. Mitt looks like a guy who said he met Marge on eHarmony Mitt looks like a guy who goes to the restroom when the check comes Mitt looks like a guy who forgot to remove his teeth whitening strip Mitt looks like the guy your mother points to and says why can't you be more like him. He looks like a former Tarzan. Mitt looks like the guy that shows you around Total Fitness. Mitt looks like the guy who has a crease in his jeans. He looks like the guy that would approve your check at a supermarket.
We finally got a halfway decent snow this week. I really, really like snow and it helps with the dullness of winter. My favorite thing to do in snow is sled, I can't get enough of it. Most of NWA only got a couple of inches but out here on the farm we got close to four inches. Here is a pic to prove it, this was taken on the deck.
Up until today, everything was still completely covered. I am sure snow would get old if you had it all the time but here where we don't get much it is so exciting to have it. One of the other great things about snow is that it makes the outdoors look beautiful. That is one great thing about our house, it looks amazing in the snow. I thought I would take a pic so everyone could see.
I think if I moved the truck and Margo and Jake weren't in the picture, I could sell it to a post card company.
It is getting to be the time of year for baby goats to be born. I think it will still be a month or so before most of our goats have babies but we have one that must have got bred a lot sooner because she is about to burst like a blood engorged tick. She is our smallest goat. We call her Crazy Goat because she is kind of wild and we can not catch her very easily. She has really cool coloring as well. Another funny thing about her is she climbs to the very top of the brush piles to eat instead of eating from the ground level like the rest of the goats.
Here is a pic of her last summer on top of a brush pile that was probably 6-7 feet tall.
Anyway, the main reason I am putting up this post about our probable first babies is for my work. Last year when I had a goat about to have babies I thought it would be fun to have a pool at work and let everyone put a dollar in and guess a date that they think she would have the babies and whoever guessed right won the money. It was a lot of fun. So, I thought I would do it again this year and start an annual tradition. Tomorrow is the official start of the pool so I thought I would post a pic so everyone at work could get a good look at her and make their best guess as to what day they think she will have babies. Here is the best pic we could get of her (she doesn't let us get very close to her) that shows how pregnant she is. Just to give you an idea of how big she is now, look at her legs and how far apart they are and that is about how wide she is normally. She looks like a big goat balloon.
For all of you who I don't work with, feel free to start your own pool at your work to try and guess the date of birth.
Have I mentioned that I am getting tired of winter. It has been very cold the past couple weeks and we had a little ice storm earlier in the week. It was 10 times worse out here that it was in Fayetteville. We could not even make it down our dirt road hill on Tuesday evening and had to walk home (about a mile). I felt a little like the old people who walked uphill both ways in 7 feet of snow to school. That is the first time we have not been able to make it down our road. We still have ice in some places on the farm. Because of the constant cold weather, our ponds have been frozen over for a while. This means that every day I have to go and chop through the ice with the sledge hammer so the cow, goats, and chickens can have water to drink. That gets old real fast. I want to come up with some kind of solar powered heating thing that I can keep in the edge of the pond to keep it melted a little when it is frozen. It is starting to get pretty thick, I am not sure what thickness it needs for ice skating but if anyone wants to try it, come on over. It is supposed to warm up this weekend so hopefully it will melt some. Here is a pic of me (in my stylish winter farm work clothes) with a chunk of ice I chopped out to show all of you how thick it is. I strategically placed my hand next to the ice as a comparison.
I thought I would let you all know that I finished my first book of the year. For those of you who don't know, one of my New Year's resolutions was to read more. You can read about my new resolution here. Anyway, I decided to start my new era of reading with the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I read another of his books, The Martian Chronicles in high school and really enjoyed it. I felt this book would be very appropriate for the first book in my return to reading. The book is set in the future when books have been banned and anyone found to have them is put in jail and the books are burned along with the house they are found in. The story follows a fireman (a person who burns the books) and his journey from burning books to having an awakening that books are not evil and ultimately turns against the system. He becomes a criminal because he starts reading books, his home is burned and he has to flee the city and go into hiding to survive. The story is very relevant today, even more so than when it was written I think. The main reason people in the book don't care about not being able to read is that television is all people care about for entertainment and social interactions. Ray Bradbury stated that the book is a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which ultimately leads to ignorance. (now you see why it was so appropriate for my first book) People in the book have stopped interacting with other people except on tv. Families don't sit around and talk and bond, instead they just watch tv while at home. No one discusses ideas or issues anymore.
Does all of this sound somewhat familiar. It seems like people today are always watching tv while at home and not interacting with their families and friends. Even meal times takes place around the tv or with the tv on. Children can not play or entertain themselves without a tv, dvd, or a video game going. One thing I found very interesting in the book was that when people weren't at home and were out in public, everyone wore ear "shells" that played music, commentary, or news. These kept people from having to interact with others. When I read this I thought of ipods and how everyone has them now. Ipods are one of my pet peeves when some people always have them on when they are out in public, whether shopping, eating, or anything else. It drives me crazy. I think all of these things are a major problem these days and I want to try and change it at least with my family and friends. I am as guilty as the next person but it is never too late to change and do something about it. This is part of the reason I have started reading. So, I encourage all of you to interact more with others. Invite neighbors or friends over for dinner and after dinner instead of watching tv, just sit around in talk or play a board game. Turn off the tv once in a while in the evening and interact and play with your family. Go outside and enjoy nature. Invest in people.
I think it is officially the dead of winter. It is cold and there is nothing green outside. I get kind of bored and depressed around this time every year. I like winter pretty good I guess but it just gets old after a while. I can't wait until spring comes and everything turns green again and it is warm so I can do more things outside. I especially can't wait to start gardening again and seeing all the vegetables and flowers grow. For all of you out there that are like me, I thought I would post some pictures from last year's garden to help cheer you up and give you something to look forward to in this dreary time of year.
Here is the overall picture, it will be bigger this year.
For the past week or so, I have been working on a pretty big project that I am very happy to have completed. Our house does not have a lot of extra storage areas like big closets or an attic and we needed some extra storage space. There is a big enclosed room down in the shop/carport and I use most of this room to store all my tools and to work on all my little projects. I decided to divide off a small portion of this area to make into a storage room for all of our stuff we don't use very much but still want to keep. Things like Christmas decorations, camping gear, fishing gear, canning stuff, paraphernalia from the past, and other such things. The small storage room I built was approximately 5'x12'. I have never really added a room or built walls by myself before, I have just helped my father do it, so this was my first solo project of this type. I also decided while I was working on the shop to do some rewiring in the shop and add a light to my new room. Overall, the room turned out pretty good. It is not perfect but it will totally fulfill it's purpose. I am so happy to have it complete because I am a big fan of organization and this will help to get all that extra stuff organized and in a place all it's own instead of spread around in different places where we found extra space.
Here is me working on putting up a wall
Here is one end of the new room
Here is the other end, one door goes to the outside and the other one goes into the main part of the shop.
I also thought I would let you know that I am getting rid of the Video of the Day section that has been in the side column of the blog. From now on, if I come across a really good video I want to share, I will just add it to my main post.
Hello 2008, I am anxious to see what you have planned for us. I am not usually much on making resolutions. I do have ideas of things I want to do in the new year, but I guess that is what a resolution is. Most of mine have to do with getting certain things done on the farm, sticking to a new budget, saving more money, trying to be more friendly and stuff like that. My most interesting one that I thought I would share is that I am going to try to read more. I have not been much of a reader since graduating from college. I figure I need to start reading again so my brain does not turn to mush by the time I am 30. It's just that I enjoy movies so much more and would rather spend my time watching them. I thought my goal should be conservative and attainable so I am going to try to start by reading one book a month. If any of you have suggestions for a good book for me to read, leave a comment and let me know. You better make it a good one though, because you don't want to be the one that makes a suggestion of one that turns out not to be good to me and causes me to quit reading again and therefore turns my brain to mush. (And to all of my Christian friends and family, please don't suggest the Bible. I realize it is a good book and I should read it more but that is not the suggestion I am looking for).
We have a new addition to the farm. We got a new kitty. My parents' cat had kittens a while back so while we were there for Christmas we got one and brought it back. We have not had very good luck keeping two cats around. One of our original cats Spot has stuck around and we like her very much. We have had 3 other cats as our second cat that have either left or died. I hope this one sticks around, she is very nice and cute and is even getting along with the other animals pretty well. We named her Hello.
