Mystang's Homesteading Circus

mystang89

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Added a Walnut tree to the list and finished cutting all the trees up, splitting the wood and stacking. All with my children's help of course. Then the sheep wanted to go for a tractor ride.
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Now all it on to another set of trees tomorrow. The children asking when we would be done cutting trees. I told them after the wood shed was full. Ah, the look of despair on a child face is prescious. :D
 

mystang89

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A few more trees came down today but not by me. I was inside feeding the baby and when I went out some of the trees were already cut down by my oldest son (10) and oldest daughter (9). The had taken the handsaw and cut down about 5 of them which were around 3 - 4" in diameter. I was pretty impressed and proud of them for simply taking the initiative.

Anyway, I cut the rest. We'll do some more tomorrow.
 

mystang89

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Nothing significant. Still cutting trees down for firewood. We probably have enough for a month of bad weather so still have a lot more to go but I ran out of 2 cycle gas so it's on hold for now.

I put liberty up for sale on Craigslist so we'll see how that goes. Even if he doesn't sale I can still butcher so it's not like anything is lost. I figure I'll keep the other ram just in case something happens to my main one. Murphy's law and all that.
 

mystang89

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Got hit with a head cold or something yesterday. If say allergies but I very rarely get them. Aches all over, stuffy nose etc but those aches were not helping yesterday as I took the roof off the wood shed to change it out. Plus it wasn't fairly hot, around 95f. I know that's cool compared to South Texas and Arizona but the humidity really kicks it up a notch. Anyways, finished taking the roof off and got half put back on before my body just couldn't take anymore.

Really didn't feel like milking the sheep either but since I'm still the only one who knows how then nothing can be done about it. Keep telling people they have to learn but they don't seem to understand.

My 10 y/o son was cleaning out the sheep stall yesterday, thankfully, and was putting the wheelbarrow full in the solo where we keep all the compost. Right inside the silo was a small mound of compost about 2ft wide by 1 ft tall. Easily movable with a pitch fork. He comes inside and says he can't get the wheelbarrow inside the silo because of the mound so I ask him what he thinks will need to be done in order for him to accomplish his task. He knows exactly where I was going with this and just looked off or looked to the floor so I asked again. Moving the mound is what he said. I told him correct and went on to say that daddy wasn't always going to be around to do the extra little work when something comes up. He needs to step into some bigger shoes. Really the only reason he came in is because he wanted someone else to move that pile. I love him greatly and he's a good child but his temperament is a phlegmatic so he is prone to bouts of laziness. I'm the opposite so it boggles my mind quite often lol. It's amazing how each person can help to offset another's weakness. Anyway, I tried to make that point to him and my wife to let them know that there were going to be times when I WASN'T going to be able to do what I normally can. I'm only 35 but I know life throws curve balls all the time.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to teach the sheep how to milk each other yet. Well, I suppose the little ones would probably still milk the momma's but the keep all the milk for themselves. Stingy little things. I read somewhere a person saying that before you got into milking animals you needed to realize there was no sick days, vacation days, PTO, or anything else unless of course someone else could do the job. You would need to be there. It really struck me yesterday just how true that was.
 

Baymule

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And that is exactly why Daddy needs to give milking lessons...…. I hope you feel better. We all have dragged ourselves out to take care of animals and know where you are coming from. With little back up members of the family running around, you need to get to training them how to do things just for times like this. And they will grow up, fly to the city and tell horror stories to their friends about how Daddy made them do.....(insert all farm chores here LOL)
 

mystang89

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Lol, very true. I have said it plenty but I should be more assertive about it. I've always been the impatient type when it comes to teaching. If the person isn't doing it fastv enough it the way it should I generally just take over and show them. However many people learn better from doing than watching. I still have much to learn myself.
 
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