Milo

Well, some of the milo is ready to harvest. The chickens are so excited to get GOOD grain again. Yesterday we drove to Brush to meet Cara to pick up the twins and Ethan so they could come to the farm. It is too bad there isn't some way to package all the energy young children have. They are having a great time at the farm playing outside, feeding animals and gathering eggs. Today they got to see a combine up close. We get grain directly from the farmer's fields for our animals whenever possible. For milo we put our containers in the back of the truck and have the farmer load the grain directly into the back of the truck. The kids were having fun "hiding" in the containers in the back of the truck and then this big THING came over the top of them. A combine is a big machine! They got out of the truck and then their eyes got huge as they watched the milo come out of the combine and drop into the truck. But more fun than watching that was getting to walk around in the milo and scoop it out of the truck. Unfortunately, then they found out the big drawback to playing in milo...the dreaded itch! They were ready to take a bath and wash that itch off! They talked on the phone to their Momma tonight. The conversation included a discussion of when they should go back home. Three kids-three opinions. The compromise was to go home on Friday morning, so Evelyne and I will be making the trip to Brush again on Friday.

Sleeping with Chester

Having a warm body sleeping close by in the winter is a pleasant thing. Generally. When Rascal is in bed with me, she rarely moves (I move and disturb her) and when she purrs it is so soft you can barely hear her. She is a good companion for sleeping.

Chester? Well that is another story.

Chester was an orphan born in 2007 who came to our house to be fostered because the vet didn't have the heart to put him and his littermates to sleep. (He came here with 3 other kittens. Two were adopted by local people and Earl has the third one.) All of these kittens had really good motors. When they started with the purring it could be heard two rooms away. Chester still purrs loud enough to awaken me from sleep. He doesn't get to stay in the house very often, but he and Rascal were the only ones in last night. I remembered too late why I don't have him in the house at night more often. Not only does is he purr loudly, he drools when he purrs. If he is sitting on your lap purring, that is annoying, but not such a terrible thing. When he awakens you from a sound sleep with his purring and you find the covers are wet from his slobber-that IS a BAD thing. He is a handsome dude...but he is still sleeping in the big building with other cats tonight.

Four Letter S word

The weatherpeople predicted anywhere from 3 to 14 inches of that white stuff would be on the ground this morning, (they all seemed to have differing opinions which only proves they use their "best guess" not science). Blizzard warnings were included by all of them with sustained winds in the 40 m.p.h. range. The last two days we have spent getting places fixed so the animals could be comfortable regardless of the scenario. We are getting pretty good at fix-it projects like that. We moved our big hay wagon into the big barn and fastened a board to the end of it so the goats have several places to go to get out of the wind. We put the hay bales back in the chicken house to close off the summer draft spaces, put boards around the rabbits' area and added covers to the fronts of their cages. They all have extra feed and water. Now, in case the pessimist (unless its a skiier-then optimist) weatherperson is correct at least the animals will be ok. Cats you ask? Oh yes, they are covered too. They have beds in the big building, the first greenhouse, and the bus with food and water in each of those places as well. Of course, Rascal gets to stay in the house with Mom. And occasionally others manage to find their way in as well. The wood stove has been fired up for two days now and they dearly love to sleep beside that. Wish I could do the same! So far we only have a light dusting of s*** on the ground and not much is falling from the dreary, gray, sullen sky. I'm not fooled by the pause. As a result, it is too nasty to be outside and perhaps some of the laundry, paperwork, vacuuming, dusting, canning and baking will get done today. OK, you are right...some of the canning and baking might get done today, but there is a slim chance some of the other chores will be accomplished. I hope the storm isn't a bad one. Tomorrow I have a busy day scheduled. Low income commodity distribution is in the morning, which will take a couple of hours of our time. After that my entire afternoon and evening is filled doing secret shops in Burlington. I don't like doing them, but when they offer those bonus $$ I have trouble saying no. Since the money I earn from those jobs as well as the waitress jobs goes directly into my entertainment fund, and I have another entertainment trip scheduled for mid November, I have incentive to do the work. The Post Office j-j-j-&%, on the otherhand, goes to pay bills. No wonder I don't like that j-j-j-&%! We came up with a new idea for the cactus jelly. Evelyne made some yesterday with our new secret ingredient and it is heavenly! Too bad that fruit is only available seasonally and in limited quantities because this stuff is the best jelly ever. Next year I will obviously have to be out doing scouting missions in September to gather the cactus for the juice. Fortunately, it is something most land-owners don't care if you remove it from their land. Before this white stuff fell on the ground we had some really nice green patches around the homestead. The wheat we planted came up nicely, and the small amount of pasture we seeded looks fantastic. I hope we can duplicate the seed mixture to plant more of it next spring as it looks like it will serve us well. Ok, I'm off to peel garlic so I can get it in the dehydrator. Home grown, dried and chopped garlic is SO much better in our herb mixes than the stuff from the store. The dehydrator has to be in the greenhouse when it is drying the garlic however. Othewise the scent of garlic becomes overwhelming experience has taught us. Hope you are staying warm and cozy. Aunt Jo

Greenhouse Observations

The greenhouse was a wise investment. I can feel my blood pressure decrease, my body relax and my attitude improve as soon as I enter. Apparently it has positive effects on the cats too, as they get in the door quicker than I do. I have a couple of jalapeno peppers which are red and screaming "Pick me!" and the little tomatoes on the vines are now medium size. YUMMMY vine ripened tomatoes in December...what a concept. You can tell you've had a long day when you notice at bedtime that you've had your underwear on inside out all day. Don't ask me how that revelation came about! Yesterday's board meeting for HPFC was a long one, but I think we may be making forward progress. Unfortunately, we have grown to the point where "committees" are rearing their ugly heads. I've always thought of a camel as a horse which was designed by a committee. Hopefully ours will be more successful than most committees I've been exposed to. The economy is having a negative effect on the coop and sales this month were down to just over half of what they were in August. I would be worried about that, but Oklahoma's sales were also way down so I suspect it is simply a sign of the times. We have an appointment on Monday to take some chickens to be processed. We did 5 on our own last week just to prove we still can do it. It is not one of our preferred tasks, hence the trip to Wray to have someone else do them. The texture and flavor of these chickens is so different from that crap you get at the store it is unbelievable. It makes all the time and effort we spend caring for them worthwhile. Our little bantam chicks are laying eggs again. They chose to put them in an enclosed box. We wouldn't have even know they were laying eggs except one had rolled close enough to their little door for us to see it. Yesterday I took the screws out of the top of the box and put hinges on the back so it now it has a roof that opens and we can get the eggs out. There were 10 eggs in there. Since I don't know how long it has been since the first one was put in there, and there was no way to tell which was the last one...they all became cat eggs. (Eggs for cats to eat...not eggs that become cats!) The cats are greatful as they really like to have eggs for dinner. We planted a couple more patches of wheat for the creatures to nibble on. The ducks and Bad Goose are enjoying their wheat grass a lot. The weatherpersons are predicting that 4 letter s word for Wednesday this week. We can still use the moisture, but what would be wrong with rain instead of that white stuff? Since we know winter will be here before we are ready, we put the plastic covering on the chicken house so it will be warmer for the chickens when the cold comes. We still have to move some straw bales in there for them and their house will be cozy. We pulled all the tomatoes out of the garden. After picking off the larger fruits to be used by us, we fed the rest of them, plants and all, to the goats. Tomatoes are one of Ginger's favorites. Anything to eat is Star's favorite. I still need to split wood for the stove for the winter. It is a sunny day with just a slight breeze. I think today is the day to work on that project, so I will do that while you enjoy your afternoon. Love, Aunt Jo

A Tale of Ebony's Tail

Our little kid Ebony is one of Ginger's triplets from late this spring. He is a spirited little creature with interesting fleece. Like all of the goats he is allowed to roam around the grounds and comes into the barnyard whenever he wishes during the day, but always has to come in at night to protect him from predators. Our buck, Blanco Billy, has become very ornery lately. He growls and barks sounding remarkably like a dog whenever we feed the goats grain. He has definitely taken over Alpha position from Ginger and the kids are definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. I noticed one morning as the goats went out of the barnyard to browse that Ebony's tail looked shorter than it usually appeared. Upon closer observation it looked just like a puppy's tail that had been recently docked (a totally awful thing that people do to dogs, by the way). I immediately accused Blanco of chewing it off. Ebony didn't seem to be in any pain, and the tail was not bleeding so there wasn't anything I could do about it. I mentioned the situation to Evelyne and she also thought it was a strange thing to happen. We discussed if it was time to send Blanco someplace else to live. We MAY have unjustly accused Blanco. Evelyne found the rest of the tail under the table they sleep on in the barn. We still don't know how it came off, but we are pretty sure it hurt a lot when it did! I have been watching him closely and it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all and appears to be healing nicely. I guess it is just another of the strange happenings at Prairie House.

Coming Soon---More frequent updates on Chronicles

Good news. Since I have been so severely chastised for my negligence in sending out timely Prairie House Chronicles, I have decided to start a Blog for more frequent updates. Don't expect daily updates, although on occasion that may happen. I will however give you an update at least weekly, even if nothing is happening. The most recent events worth chatting about would have been poor Ebony and the story of his tail, a story about my new greenhouse, and the progress of High Plains Food Coop (www.highplainsfood.org). I will review the status of the goat herd, the guinea fowl, the ducks, the goose, the chickens, and of course, the cat population. Oh, yes...there will be a story about a raccoon in there some place too. Hint: It DOES NOT live here anymore!