Halloween Mystery

I woke up this morning and thought,"Great, the fire must have went out in our stove." It was COLD in the house. I get up and go into the living area and what do I see? The front door was wide open! What!!!!! Cold air was blowing in from the north right into our house. No wonder it was cold!

Now I had a few questions, did someone come into the house? Nope. Since our house has an open floor plan, I could see instantly that no one else was in the house. So I knew I was safe.

 HAD someone been in the house? No, nothing was missing. Although, I wished someone would have taken all of the clutter away. lol.

My next question was, "Did the cat get out?"  With the cat having feline leukemia, it can't get around other cats just in case they could be sick. But, on the second look around, I saw the cat sleeping on a pile of coveralls on the chair. I went and petted him. Yep, he was a little damp from being outside, but with it being rainy, he probably didn't want to stay outside for long. That question was solved.

Next question, "Did anything come INSIDE?"  Yesterday morning when Hubby went to work, there was a strong smell of skunk.  Oh please, PLEASE don't let there be a skunk in the house! I do believe I would just burn it down and start fresh. lol. I would NEVER get that smell out of a house. So very slowly I checked under things and in hiding spots for anything black and white. It didn't help that the cat thought I was playing and would hide and jump out at me. Did I mention that my cat is black and white. Uh ya, fun..... No skunks were found. Although, I did have a few heart attacks.

Finally I was wondering how the door was opened.  Then I remembered that in the middle of the night, Skeeter  had to go outside to do her business. I also remember being REALLY sleepy. So maybe, just maybe, I didn't shut the door tight. And, with the wind that we have been having, It just opened the door all the way. Problem solved.

 Everything turned out okay. No robbers, no lost cat, no skunks. I can handle the cold for a little time. At least until the stove heated everything back up. It could have been a lot worse. I did learn my lesson and will now check to see if I closed the door all the way whenever  I get up in the middle of the night.  But, you have to admit, it could have been a really good Halloween story about ghosts opening the door in the middle of the night. bwahahahaha! It's also a good thing that we didn't have a dog outside at the time. Could you imagine getting woke up by a big, slobbery tongue in the face? LOL! Oh well........

 So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, door checker.

This Morning

I woke up this morning to snow.........and then I went back to bed. :)

SFG

Early Riser

Here I am sitting in front of the computer at 5:15. Hubby just left for work and I decided to stay up instead of going back to sleep. I'm going to try this for a while hoping that I get use to getting up early. Usually I go back to bed and toss and turn for a little bit before finally going to sleep around 6:30 and then getting up feeling groggy around 10. I don't like getting up that late, and I don't like feeling so groggy. So, I'm going to try staying awake.

The animals are confused in the change of the normal routine.  The cat usually comes and sleeps with me once Hubby is gone and Skeeter sleeps in her blanket by the bed. Now, the cat is sleeping on my shoulder/chest. I guess he figures that he's going to sleep on me no matter what. Skeeter stared at me for a little bit like she was thinking,"Aren't you coming to bed?" Then, she just went back to bed herself.

What makes getting up this early hard is that I actually have been up since 2am.  We started up the wood stove for the first time yesterday. It finally got cold enough that we needed it.  Everything was all nice and toasty in here. Around 2 am this morning, the stove started to smoke. The wind from storm Sandy was making it's appearance. It was blowing just right to cause back drafts to come down the chimney causing smoke to slowly puff out of the stove. Nothing major, just enough for me to smell it. Now this might sound funny, but I can't sleep if I smell something different in the house. If I have something in the crock pot to cook overnight, I can't sleep. I keep smelling the food. If the litter box needs changed, I can't sleep. I have to clean it out. If Hubby had too many beans..... Well, you get the idea. :) Anyway, the smoke from the stove woke me up at 2am this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep.

I could go back to sleep for a little while, but I need to get up around the time the sun comes up because I need to let the chickens out of their chicken house.(The new house isn't done yet.)  We have 8 young roosters in there getting ready for the butcher block and if the older rooster wakes up at the same time as the young ones do without them being able to get out, there could be some very disturbed chickens. I have been letting them come and go as they please and kept the door open all night long, but without us having a dog to guard them at night, something went in night before last and helped itself to a chicken dinner. One of our hens were eaten right in the chicken coop. So we aren't taking any chances on whatever it was coming back.

Well, I guess I'm going to have to get something done around the house so I'll get off of here for now.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, early riser

Sheep and Dogs

Yesterday was a good day. We went to "Hug-a-Sheep Day" over at Punkin's Patch.  Lots and lots of sheep!  Where else would I want to be on a cold, wet day? It was nice and toasty with all the sheep milling around you wanting cookies. Thanks for inviting us Sara!!!

Well, as you all probably know, we had to get rid of George.  He went to another family that didn't have any other animals. He will be fine. But now, that leaves our home dogless. (Skeeter doesn't count.) We need a dog that can go outside and bark at coyotes and actually scare them away. (Skeeter won't do that.) We also want something that will get along with all of our animals,cows, goats, chickens, and Skeeter.  The dog also has to get along with our neighbors kids. (George, did not.)  So, that is our problem. We need a dog.

So now, we are looking for another dog. This dog has to "click" with us. We are not just going to get the first big dog that someone gives us. We are going to be picky. It's hard to find the "right" dog. I also believe that you don't have to pay a fortune for it either. Do you know that someone once gave us a dog that was worth $2000 to $4000?  It didn't work out. We got rid of THAT one real quick. It would growl at me and Hubby every time we would go outside. Then, it attacked Skeeter. Nope, we didn't keep that one. The previous owner didn't want it back either. Imagine that.

I believe some of the best dogs are cheap. We've got some really good dogs from the dog pound. Luke, our St. Bernard was a gift. We got to keep him for 8 yrs before he died of the old age of 13. That's OLD for a St. Bernard. We miss him. He was a great dog. A little slobbery, but a great dog.

I know somewhere out there is our dog. We were hoping for a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, a Bernese or another St. Bernard but, we aren't going to limit ourselves to just these types. When the right dog comes along, we will know.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, dog wanter.

Question of the Day

When we get our upstairs done on our house, and we get out of this basement, I'm considering getting a gas stove to cook on. Now, I know I will like cooking on it better because of the instant heat and such but, I've heard that propane stoves leave a film on everything in the kitchen. I've never had a gas stove, just electric so I have no idea. Is this just something that the old stoves did? Are they better now?  I really don't want to have to wipe everything down all the time. I know me and I just wont do it. I also know that a film on everything in my kitchen would DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!

So, the question of the day is.....What do you cook with? Gas(propane) or electric.

SMF, question asker..er

P.s. I already have a wood stove that I cook on and love it. But, I have that as a back up and not my main cooking stove.

Fall

This picture was taken across the road from our house. It was such a beautiful day yesterday I just had to take some pictures. Although it is with my phone, I thought is still come out half way decent. I can't wait until I get a good camera. hehehe.

So until next time, Small Farm Girl, Happy Fall Ya'll!

Chicken Coop Dreams

We are in need of a new chicken coop. Hopefully this weekend we'll be building a new one. We have some left over lumber from when we built our house, so we are going to use it. We will probably end up with one that looks like this.

But, I would love to have one that looked like this.

 A girl can dream.........

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, dreamer

Drained

Today I drug myself out of bed. It was gray and cloudy outside. I DID NOT want to get up. A friend was coming over to my house this morning so I HAD to get up.  I waited until the last minute to get dressed and I threw on a baseball hat. No doing my hair today. No putting on makeup. I was too tired. My friend stayed for a little over an hour and them went on her merry way. Me, I just wanted to go back to bed, but I knew that there were hungry goats that need to be fed. So I drug my sorry butt outside and fed them, I fed the rabbits and I let out the chickens.( They have gone crazy this time of year, but that's a story for another time.)

I noticed that the goat fed was running low so I had to run to the feed store to pick some up. Normally I talk to the owner. He is really BIG into Boer goats. He travels the country showing them. He's pretty good too.  I    usually can talk to him for hours about goats and the show world, but today, I was just too tired.  I got a bag of goat feed and said, "Hi and Bye," and left. I just wanted to get home.


When I got home I knew that I had soooo many things that needed to be done. The house looked like an airplane crashed in it.(Not exaggerating! I think I saw landing gear.) I just had to do something. So what did I do? I sat down on the couch and looked at pintrest on the computer. Usually I see the nice looking pictures of what I want my house to look like and them I get inspired and get up and get busy. Not this time, I was too tired.

I HAD to do something.  Drink coffee? No! I would be up all night. Seriously, I can't drink a whole cup without being up all night. Soft drink? Yuck!  Hot chocolate? Getting closer.... Tea!!! I would drink a nice, hot cup of Earl Grey. I searched the cupboards high and low. WE WERE OUT !!!! Augh!!!!!!  Don't panic!!! Breathe!!  I found a bag of green tea. Not as potent, but it might work.  And then, as I was searching for the tea, I found it, back in the corner of the cupboard. I think I heard angels sing! It was a small, fun size bar of chocolate. Now I'm not a sweet eater, I'll take biscuits and gravy over a a big hot fudge sundae any day. But, today, I needed chocolate. And, I ate it. I savored it. I almost cried.(okay, not really, but you get the picture. heheheh)

So I ate chocolate and drank green tea and in 15 minutes, I had so much energy I was zipping around like a ground squirrel. I think I might have to stock up on chocolate.  For medicinal purposes, of course. wink

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, energized

Busy Weekend!

Is it just me? Is October one of the busiest months? Whew!!! This weekend we were gone from the house every day since Friday! We did sleep here at nights, but we had so many things going on, we didn't have time to do anything around the house. In fact, I didn't have time to even do dishes or laundry. I am out of clean forks and clean underwear. (Not necessarily in the order of importance. lol)  We were busy, but it was worth it.

Friday we went to the Wool Festival in Falmouth Ky. It was WONDERFUL!!!!! I learn soooo much when I go to this festival. This time I learned about felting wool. It's so interesting! It's like making sculptures with wool. I think I love this!! :)  It just might(cough, cough) be my new obsession. It's easy, it's artsy, and it's very fun! Look it up, you just might be hooked too.We also got to see the Crazy Sheep Lady, Sara. I just love her! You will too! Stop by her blog and tell her I sent you. If you love sheep and anything to do with wool, she is your lady.

Saturday we went to help my cousin move into her first home. The house was just adorable!  She was so excited to finally get her own house. She did an excellent job of picking one. We didn't get home until late Saturday night and we were TIRED!

Sunday we had to go and do our basic running. Hubby had to get parts for his truck, we paid a bill off, and we had to do some grocery shopping. (Don't even get me started on the prices.) We didn't get home until after 8 pm. I've had enough!!!!

So instead of doing dishes or laundry, I had to get my priorities straight and blog first. hehehehe.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, procrastinator

Great Weekend!!!

This weekend was great! We had our(for lack of a better name) Prepper Party! We had a great amount of people showed up. We had good food to eat and great conversation. You can't understand how great it is to talk to people who think on the same line that you do when it comes to being prepared.  Now, I want to let you know this was not an "end of the world" event. This was a "be prepared for anything" type of party.  We talked about all kinds of things that could happen.  It was very enlightening. Things that you never thought about was brought up by the person next to you. It was an all around great night. In fact, we are hoping to have another get-together in the spring. Maybe with even more people and more organization. hehehe

The week before we had the party, we were given some bean plants by Hubby's parents. They planted too many so they were just pulling up the plants, beans and all, and giving them away. We ended up with the back of Hubby's truck heaping full of green bean plants.  After we picked the beans off of the plants we had 3 bushels of green beans. I actually ran out of jars! I now know what I need to get me for Christmas. (Did I just say the C word. Auuugh!) Before I ended up running out of jars, I had 72 quarts of beans. I ended up giving over a bushel of them away. I think I'll be fine with that. LOL!

I am glad to see October finally here but, it is the busiest month for us. It seems like every weekend we have something to do or someplace to go. This coming weekend we are going to the Kentucky Wool Festival. YEA!!!! I love this festival! This is where I learned how to spin wool. Thank you Sara!  Great place to be! I'll try to take some pictures but, I'm having issues with not being able to put pictures on here. I don't know. I'll figure something out. lol

So how is your October turning our so far?

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, one busy farmer.