Devonviolet Acres

[Devonviolet]

Devon & Bay didn't elaborate on how much work this is! I'd have to get $100 a pint to make it worth while.

Well, yes, it IS a bit of work. However, if you think about it just about anything you do on the farm is a lot of work!

 

[Baymule]

Everything I like doing is a lot of work. I've been watching the elderberry patches, the berries are still green. Might as well mention that a whole lot of what I like to do is hot, sweaty, filthy dirty or it's cold, wet and filthy dirty. Working sheep through my new chute a couple days ago, I felt something warm on my leg, ran down my leg and into my shoe. I donned latex gloves and dug in their "where the sun don't shine" for berries and I don't mean blue berries.

 

[Mike CHS]

Everything I like doing is a lot of work. I've been watching the elderberry patches, the berries are still green. Might as well mention that a whole lot of what I like to do is hot, sweaty, filthy dirty or it's cold, wet and filthy dirty. Working sheep through my new chute a couple days ago, I felt something warm on my leg, ran down my leg and into my shoe. I donned latex gloves and dug in their "where the sun don't shine" for berries and I don't mean blue berries.

I think that about 75% of my ewes feel the need to squat and pee on my leg and feet when they feel me behind them in the chute.

 

[Baymule]

I think that about 75% of my ewes feel the need to squat and pee on my leg and feet when they feel me behind them in the chute.

That sure is encouraging.

 

[Mini Horses]

Can't smell any worse than a buck goat in rut and taking a whiz on you! Just hate when it goes in your boot and you have wet feet!

I have more elders that are still green....shady areas & some younger bush. How much juice do you guys try to put up? Or syrup? Or what amount do you use????

Hey, Devon has her OWN bushes. She'll miss the fun of jumping ditches and shuffling thru the scruff around these wild ones we hunt, Bay. I have 4 decent starts on my own farm and I'm going to encourage them to GROW. They are at the back end, on the downside of the slope...that wet feet thing. They're 2-3 yrs out for "enough". LOL who knows. I may not need what I have picked now.

 

[Baymule]

I think I'm going to freeze some berries for pie. I won't can the syrup again, but I will can the juice, then make syrup or just a drink.

 

[Mini Horses]

Yep, I'm canning or freezing juice, then will make syrup if need later. The juice should be enough to do it's work, sugar just makes it taste better. My juice was pleasant and not really needing much sweetening for my taste. I did find that the berries I had frozen were greatly easier to squish up than the fresh batch I did first. So, I will always freeze them first now.

Nice that we are keeping Devon's thread working. I suspect that she is swamped with chores and preparing items for, plus attending the farmers markets right now. You go girl!

 

[Devonviolet]

Well, as most (if not all of you) know, my life has been a whirlwind for the past three weeks, since DH had an emergency quadruple bypass. As each day dawns, we find him feeling better and better. However, sometimes it’s three steps forward, two steps back. Yesterday was a great day. He has been walking up and down our 200’ driveway. Yesterday, he met me out back by the barn, to “help” me cut fencing, to use as a trellis for my pole beans. He pushed the lawn mower onto the end of the roll, so it wouldn’t spring up and make it impossible to measure it. Then, he held the wire ties out, so I could use them to roll the 20’ lengths of fencing.

As happens every August, here in Texas, it is brutally hot now. Doing the chores twice a day is hard work, but I am physically up to it. I find that now that I have lost 48 pounds on my new low carb lifestyle, I have an amazing amount of energy and strength. So, I don’t actually mind the work. However, the heat and humidity is killing me!!! From the time I walk out the door, until the time I go back in the house, 2 - 4 hours later, I sweat profusely! My clothes are always soaked when I go in, and I have to take a shower immediately. I have been wearing a flour feed sack dish towel, folded in a triangle (looks like a babushka), to catch the sweat coming off my head. By the time I’m finished, that is soaked, like I poured water on my head.

I’m the kind of person, who, once I am in motion doing a job, one thing leads to another, and by the time I’m finished, it’s hours later, and I have gotten a LOT done. Well, lately has not been any different. As an example . . . I keep hay, for the livestock, in 3 big plastic tubs, in the corner of the feed shed. I still had a half tub and could have gotten by with that tonight, as I had already packed Hope’s hay feeder FULL and it would last for at least a day and a half, for her and the twins. But, I was on a roll, and grabbed one of the empty tubs and filled (packed it tight) it. But that wasn’t enough, I grabbed the half full one and filled that one. Oh heck! If two are good THREE are better, right??? I’m already covered with hay, I might as well fill all three! UGH! I HATE hay sticking to my wet arms!

The other problem I have is my feet. They still hurt, and my right ankle swells up, until I can sit in my recliner with the foot rest up. But, usually by morning, the pain is gone, and I am back at it.

So, yesterday, after DH took his afternoon nap, we drove to Sulphur Springs, to get him a prescription. Our first stop was at a thrift store, so see if I could find some pants, as all of my current pants are huge after my weight loss. I didn’t have a lot of time, because they were closing in 25 minutes, but I did manage to find one pair of Lee Riders slim boot cut jeans. SCORE! They were on sale, and I paid a grand total of $1.50 for essentially new (to me) pants.

After getting some dinner, we went to Walmart, to het his prescription. While we were there, he decided to push a shopping cart (for balance), rather than ride one of their electric carts. He was so proud of himself, as he managed to stay on his feet almost the whole time we were in the store. But, by the time we went to the truck, he said, “I’m spent!!” and when we went home, he spend the rest of the night in his recliner. This morning, he was tired, but managed to keep moving and get some things done in the house.

I went out, to do chores, at 8:00, after getting my milking supplies together and getting dressed. After I finished the chores, I started looking at the cluttered countertop, in the feed shed. DH is a sweetheart, but organized he is not!!! I have been asking him to clean and organize the countertop in there, for years. That is his domaine, and I don’t like to do it for him, because he just clutters it up within a week or so. So, I figure, since this will be MY domaine for the next five or so months, I could clean and organize it for ME!!! So, one thing led to another, and the entire 16 feet of countertop is now clean and organized into boxes. It feels SO GOOD!!! But, I am not done yet! OH NO!!! The next time we go to Walmart, I am buying CLEAR boxes, to put things in, so they are even more organized and I can FIND things!!!!! In the past, I have always had to ask DH where something was, because he knew exactly where everything was in that MESS! It would have just irritated me to try to find it. NOW I will know exactly where everything is.

Oh, and I bought a tabletop fan yesterday, that I am going to hang in the rafters of the feed shed, so it blows on me when I am working in there. With all this heat and two small vents and the door, it is sweltering HOT in there, and miserable to work in. So hopefully, a fan blowing on me will make it more tolerable.

I’m also going to add a half deep shelf over the countertop (out of 2x4s), so the countertop itself isn’t cluttered with the plastic boxes I’m putting things in. YAY! It’s going to be a lot less depressing to work in that dark (except for a single hanging bulb), hot feed shed!!!

My dream is to one day build a feed shed to MY specifications with LOTS of storage, to keep things organized.

 

[Bruce]

I find that now that I have lost 48 pounds on my new low carb lifestyle, I have an amazing amount of energy and strength.

Must feel 10 years younger!
Of course reading that post, I have to wonder if you don't lose 10 pounds of water weight every day

That is his domaine, and I don’t like to do it for him, because he just clutters it up within a week or so.

Sounds like here. I gave up even bothering to keep the area around my placemat on the table cleaned up, DW just pushes her piles to make room and the rest of us are the recipients.

 

[Baymule]

It is hot outside, I can well attest to that. DV, you be careful out there and don't over do it......yeah, right. I have to remember who i am talking to. Soaking wet can be accomplished merely by standing outside doing nothing, much less all the hard work you are doing.

So you organize DH's space, clean up the clutter, place things neatly in clear tubs, and when your husband finally is able to return to his little world, he will find that is has been vandalized by Martha Stewart.