Ok......so it's a Holiday!

...Memorial Day weekend. Bet most everyone out there is doing something fun, going somewhere exciting, cooking on the barbie, or picnicing...whatever.
As per usual...we are staying at home, doing nothing special. Being a Cowboy's Wife, a self-employed Cowboy you might want to call him, means WE are the one responsible for making sure all the critters are fed, watered, healthy and safe. 24/7 ! Don't live near anyone to ask to watch over things...besides, it's a Holiday! And anyone within a 6 mile radius of us, is no doubt doing things I'd like to be doing!
We miss out on sooooooo many things Rrrrrrrrrr!
So, I'll just do what I do.....garden! and Blog, of course, unless the weather gets warm and beckons me outside, like it did today. I stirred up my veggie rows some more, mixing that wonderful decomposted manure and compost pile additives another time. Besides, everytime I do that until planting time, it rids the space of more baby weeds! The more weeding you do, it's the game "pay it forward" ! Within a few years, the weeds will become the minority! And boy is that ever a reward!
I planted things friends have given me and moved and replanted others to accomodate the new things. I am frequently changing my mind on things, as they grow and as new arrivals show up on my doorstep. But what the heck, it gives me another chance to use some more of my sweet-aroma compost dirt in every hole I dig. And the plants give thanks to me by blessing me with beautiful colors and/or frangrances!
9:30 pm our time...and as the days get longer, we stay outside way too long; eat supper way too late. Not healthy! and no matter hard we try to change that, the habit was established so many years ago, we just can't seem to break it! So, now that is past sunset, I'd better get off my duff & fix some supper! Sorry, Hubby, Beef! is NOT what's for supper tonite! Just good ol' Nachos!

BEEF! It's what's for dinner!

.....so my Hubby says! He also says that if it doesn't walk on the earth's dry ground...than you shouldn't eat it! (obviously, you guessed he won't eat fish!) Yep, so that's what we had...our own home grown beef! (Roast to be exact).
Boy, there is a lot to be said for home grown anything! Be it beef, chicken, eggs, or veggies! Our beef is basically organic. They are born on our ground, raised with their Momma, brought in for weaning, and then left to grow up just grazing. Around 18 months, we bring it back in, and feed it corn (gives THEEEEEEE best flavor!), hay for minimum of 60 days, and water of course. We don't, and wouldn't even if we could afford it, vaccinate, or inject anything into the animals. They are raised like they were 100+ years ago! You know....survival of the fittest....and boy is it the bestest tasting! Healthier too, for the animal and us! Heck, we know exactly what the animals have ingested, so that is what is going into us....all natural foods!
I raise and put up all of our veggies too. Organic also! The pens where the horses, cows and chickens get kept sometimes, need to be 'cleaned', so all the proceeds get dumped in a pile out in one of the fields. The following year, after decomposing, scoopfuls (with the borrowed neighbors tractor...thank goodness) are brought in, dumped outside my fenced garden, where I then wheelbarrow it into my mounded rows and pitchfork "stir" it in. My garden's rows have always been in mound fashion. The soil warms up earlier in the Spring and they never get walked on to be compressed. Except.........by all the durned cottontails we have! I do have a compost pile too, actually 2. Coffee grounds, egg shells, some grass clippings, pulled weeds, you name it, goes there (if the goats or chickens aren't in line for it). One big pile (and I mean BIG! Like Mt. Compost!) I keep adding to, stirring and watering. My other pile, is much smaller and more manageable. I 'pull' from the big one...the what has decomposed the most...add it to the little one, more dirt, more water and more stirring....and it is ready to use at all times. I treat my flowers, my shrubs, my veggies with it! They love it!
It's been a stranger than strange Spring this year. I still won't be planting until June 5-15th. People are amazed that I don't, but ya know? My gardens always catch up and surpass most others! I do plant a few cool weather veggies for the eagerness to get gardening takes over and we did have fresh leaf lettuce and radishes for salad tonite.
Wow........wasn't going to stay on here this long! Get to talking about my passions, and I can't quit!
Spent all last nite, until 3:30am on this darned blog....'playing' and trying to change and add etc. Kind of tough to research and implement, and then change it all over again, with this slow dial-up I have! So calling it quits tonite..................

I missed Farm Club...

..today! And it was our last one for the year as the busy season of farming & agriculture is upon everyone! Just love that club! There are so many cool women! Believe it or not, I am one of the youngest members (3 younger than me) & the range goes to 94! In this very small rural community, there are a lot of women living into their 90's + . Is it the hard work? The clean fresh air? I'd like to think so, yet this ol' body should have moved here sooner instead of 3 years ago!
Had my hot dish all ready to go & then H.O.W. got on a whirlwind of a discussion about changes we need to make in our situation!
Being broke all the time is taking a toll on him too! He's been bucked off too many colts, stepped on by too many ill mannered horses being a Farrier for 30 years, built & repaired too many fences, broke too many bones (including his back!) and just plain used his (and mine!) Brawn instead of Brain more times than not! Of course, it was always out of necessity as funds never accommodated us the privilege to buy things that could help...like tractors, tools, etc! Kinda hard to change things...when you've lived the Cowboy way your whole life! What else is there??
As he sleeps, as I sit here typing, I pray that a solution will come to him in his dreams!
Only three years ago when we moved here, the economy was different! We could actually get by with what little money we were making, heck, 6 months ago wasn't so bad either! But, wow! There's been a drastic increase in groceries, gas and hay prices! Don't know how the government expects people, who were already in the poverty ranks, to keep on surviving!
We've never wanted for much, and needed less..........but this is getting scarey!!!

Worn out cowboy boots....

...and rain, don't make for warm bedfellows! Danged rain today, anyhow! It was supposed to be a good day!
Hubby worked most of the horses he has in here to start, rivers running off the brim of his hat, down to his seat in the saddle. Yea, he decided to call it quits early today hoping he could come in, dry off and 'cool off'! It plummeted from 89* the past 3 days to 56* today.
At 2pm, "Could you please replace the rusted out bathroom sink with that cheap, sale bin, Home Depot replacement we bought 2 months ago?" That's all I asked of him....grumbling, he set out to oblige. Mind you, we have renovated almost every house we've lived in, yet plumbing is NOT his forte!
Here comes 5pm and much cursing later, mission still not accomlished due to this 107 yr old house we live in....none of the the prior renovations, plumbing-wise, was done with the idea someone just might have to replace things! I hollered that the goats are out eating my ready to bloom Irises and Columbines!
Well, without creating more grumblings & cursing, as I've learned to do over all these years, the only choice was for me to gather my rain gear, slip on my boots and collect the goats myself! (if I didn't do that, my sink would never get attention for maybe another 2 months! Which in my earlier years, I'd have just done it myself, but time have taken a toll on my strength...and doing things a woman should not have done, has given me nerve damage in my most used arm...I'm a lefty)
Goats and me don't get along real well...at least not the "goats on the loose"! They have a tendency to want to eat up all my hard, rewarding work! That being my flowers! Sure, Keith thinks the goats have a purpose....to train the young Border Collies on, but my thoughts are different!
Needless to say, by 7pm the sink was still not in working order...he stripped the copper fitting for the water connection! so who knows now, when it'll get finished! We don't live anywhere near a hardware store and with the price of gas, and many miles to travel...and now money that's so hard to come by anyhow, must be spent....could be next year!
..........OH........back to the worn out cowboy boots....yes, Hubby's old Olathe boots are in dire straights and he notices their condition (or should I say lack of!) more when the mud seeps in chilling him to the bones in the wind and rain! Oh, well.........could be duct tape is in order! Been there....done that many times! LOL!