Dark Water Ranch

We a have lot of laying hens and it is my job to gather the eggs everyday. I have a little wicker basket that I put the eggs in as I gather them. Now, some days I will get as many as 3 dozen- but other days, especially in this heat, I may be lucky to get just a dozen.

Now, taking the time to count the eggs in the basket has taught me a wise lesson. My life is a lot like this basket of eggs. You see, God gives me gifts every day of my life but it is up to me what I do with them.

Sometimes, I take the eggs to a little store and sell them there. Othertimes I keep some to cook with, still other days I just put them in the icebox and forget them. However, a few days later I might take these same eggs back out of the icebox and cook a real nice meal, or find someone in need and give them a dozen. No matter,  which way I choose I am doing something with the eggs that I have been provided.

However, if I was lazy and didn’t gather the eggs or I just plain ignored the fact that the nest had eggs in them, it wouldn’t take long to have a real mess. To many eggs in a nest and chickens tend to break them, snakes and other scavenger are attracted to full nests and then other bad things happen because of that. Or the worst thing in this heat that would happen is I would have exploded, rotten egg everywhere and that is just plain nasty!

The gifts that God gives us are a lot like my basket eggs if I use them and share them that is the best thing that I can do. But if I leave them untouched they serve no purpose and in my ignorance what once was a good thing is no longer that way.

Let’s hope each of uses our eggs wisely, choosing the best ways possible to  make something good from them.

 No, there is nothing that God cannot take care of for me. I must choose to be still.

DEFINITELY NOT Watermelon Jelly Beans. There is a commercial out for a new Easter Movie, it features a little rabbit that poops out candy jelly beans. A lady eats one and says ohh watermelon.

I have to disagree. When you prefer to grow organic like we do, you know the truth. That truth is what I spent all afternoon shoveling at the rabbit barn and hauling to the cabbage bed was nothing close to a jelly bean.

 It sure didn't smell like watermelons either. Straw and hay that falls from the cages mix well with what those rabbits do drop, but it ain't jelly beans. Now, it don't smell like watermelons but it sure can help grow watermelons! This stuff is gold when it comes to growing things. A little sweat and effort mixes it all in with soil and then there is no better fertilizer.

I think however, I will avoid jelly beans for awhile, it is just the image!

I am sure this farm does not run like a well-oiled machine. Matter of fact there seems to be only one thing that every species of animal agrees on around here. Can you guess what that is? That is right F-O-O-D. It always has to be time for food. When is it coming, what are you bringing and it had better be good.

Come to think of it that sounds just like the rest of my family! Okay I am starting think conspiracy. I am destined to either have a bucket or pot in my hand. The universal language then has to be FEED ME!

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We are saving some fuel,  hard work and time by having a couple of the medium size pigs plow up part of the garden area. Sounds good huh? Well, for the most part it works just fine, they do a good job on grass and weeds, including roots. They hate onion bulbs but love the tops, the draw back they don't like old okra stems anymore than me.

Today, I dcided to speed their work up a little by going in with them to pull out the old okra stems, had to be done with or without the pigs. We were working well together, I'd pull out the old stem and they would work the spot right with me. All of sudden I found myself alone, wondering where my help went I turned around to hear water noises and see the pigs playing submarine in the water tub.

It may only be March 1st, but the pork says it is already much to hot in Oklahoma. 

My day got started after breakfast, with a goat in the kitchen sink. We have snow right now, lots and lots of snow. Because we knew the bad weather was coming we made a large kidding area inside the big barn and locked all the girls inside.

Smart move because with the snow came kids. So how did one get in the kitchen sink you ask? He got an overdose of collostrum, which means lots of icky, sticky, yellow, poo! It stuck all over him and was rock hard, it has to come off or it can hurt him. Thus, thats how he ended up in the kitchen sink for a warm backside bath!  

Of course he did not approve one bit! But he is now clean, dry and ready to go back to mom. And of course the kitchen sink and surrounding area had to be dissenfected really well. We should buy stock in Clorox.

The things we do for goats around here!

It is that time of year, planning for what and where to plant for spring. We are expanding the gourd production this year so we are trying to decide how large an area to work for the gourds. 

We make crafts from the gourds and sell them to others for crafting, and the seeds are collected out for next years crop. We also sell some seeds, so if for sale or planting we still have to take some time to glean them and count them to package for resale or stock. We have to decide jsut how many we will  need to save for planting ourselves.

The smaller gourds can be grown near the house on trellis setups, but larger gourds such as kettle, apple, basketball and canteen gourds need to have a large prepared area in the field. The ones near the house can easily be reached by a waterhose, the ones planted in field require a little more effort for irragation. 

Allthis planning just makes me impaitent for the arrival spring, never was much of one for winter. 

It pays to remember what you're wearing before you start doing your chores. I was running late yesterday - I had to go to town for some things. I got home and I knew it was later than the normal time that I do chores. Everybody on the farm was hollering that it was time to be fed. A kind of singing tirade of "hey did you forget us, it is time to eat, hurry hurry"!

I got all the groceries in the house and came out to start the chores. The pigs were screaming the loudest, so they were first. I dropped their feed over the fence and noticed the water tank was now empty and rolled to the back of the pen. So in the pen I went, it was after I reached the tank and started back, that I realized I had not changed my shoes. No rubber boots, no old tennis shoes, my good suede shoes and I just walked through the pigs and where I was thoroughly inspected with slimy slobbers and wet noses. 

My good shoes may now be my chore shoes and my old chore shoes tossed. There is a moral to this story - change your shoes before going in with the pigs!

Today we took advantage of the warm weather. We loaded up on lumber supplies and hauled them back for later work. We also started plans for the new chicken tractors. We plan to have seperate tractors for each breed, so that our new chicks will all be pure bred chickens.

If you don't know what a tractor is, a simple explanation is a portable pen that can be pulled around to different locations. This way the chickens still get free access to wild feed but are protected from predators. We have had a problem with the predators in our location lately and want a better system to protect our chickens.

The weather is reminding us that it is January here on the ranch, my least favorite month of the year. Highs are in the 20's lows 11, needless to say the water is frozen and my hands, face and ears get cold fast. It is days like this I remind myself as I do chores, A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.

At least it has not snowed here yet this year. Breaking ice on tanks is not that big of deal, but if you want a challenge then try to chip ice away in rabbit waters to refill the bottle, that takes effort!