And the saga continues!
Once I had my stuffed-full file-box of tricks already, I went online to look for free legal aid. I learned my circumstances were considered bad enough for me to get some free legal advice but were not bad enough for me to actually get any real help.
Story of my life really.
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| My Freedom File box. |
****** contents deleted by me, the First Amendment needs more teeth ****
Now for something completely different!
Devin recently informed me he wanted PROPER HAM for Christmas dinner and Amanda chimed in with "Roasted CHICKEN, Mummy!" - and I thought … OMG, is it Christmas ALREADY!?!
We had eaten all the pork in our freezer, so on went the computer where, after a short Craigslist search, I found five pot belly piglets available. Having ordered feed two weeks before, I had just enough time to fatten them and get the hams properly salted and smoked for Christmas dinner.
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| The five piglets. It's no wonder they sold so well, they are really cute and a beautiful shade of red. |
Devin had other ideas though and asked me if he could sell ONE of them for a percentage of the profits.
“What harm?” thought I. Yeah, my bad! He sold THREE of them!
Granted we got $150 for the three and all five only cost me $75, but now there was no meat for Christmas again.
Back onto Craigslist where I picked up a two-year-old pot belly sow and a pregnant eight-month-old pot belly gilt, for a total of $50. The mobile pen, however, was too small for the newcomers. (Yes, they are a small breed, but are not all that tiny when fully grown). I headed out to Tractor Supply to get hog panels to build a new pen.
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| The new pen. You can see concrete blocks hanging on each corner to keep the sows from lifting it up and I took the extra precaution of putting bits from the downed tree everywhere I thought they might try to force their way out. Pigs are strong and determined and I DID NOT want to have to catch them! Pregnant sow is the one way in the back. |
Well done me for finding a corner in my tiny yard to even fit a 14-foot by 16-foot pen! But it looks great and I managed to drag a large and VERY heavy log into it as a scratching post for the piggies. Pigs always itch so it's nice for them to have something they can rub against. As this log weighs more than the two of them put together, it's working great.
The five piglets paid the kids their Christmas money, but COST me in feed, replacement piggies and a new pen.
Merry Christmas to me - mwhahahaaaa …
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| Little seedlings everywhere. AT LAST!!! And its looking even better now with two days worth of rain. The gorilla cart is STILL full of water and now, pond life. No idea where it all showed up from but there are proper water weeds and squiggly little pond critters swimming about now so am going to HAVE to put in a little pond so I can have my dump cart back in action again. |
Out in the garden the new raised beds are starting to look good thanks to my birthday present to me in October of six cubic yards of mushroom compost. That amount filled up nine raised beds, gave a good mulching to all the banana plants and provided a little left over for topping up things here and there.
Oddly enough the mustard took over three weeks to show above ground and the other seeds planted were slow starting, too (I’ve actually NEVER had seeds take so long to get growing), but, thank heavens, everything is now up and doing well.
Showing above ground so far are peppers (many varieties), squash, carrots, onions, mustard, turnip greens, kohlrabi, beets, chard, cauliflower, broccoli, daikon radish, rat's tail radish, strawberries and tomatoes. Only some turnip greens have been picked so far when I added some to a stir-fry two nights ago. Mmmmm, it was good!
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| My latest project. I have spent the last two years refining the technique for vegetable tanning rabbit hides and have now mastered it. The 8 hides in the picture are butter soft and sinfully luxurious. They will be made into a blanket and backed with velvet. With the hides I have on the go I will actually be making FOUR blankets as its the only way to be sure I get one for myself as the kids are already fighting for possession of the first one and it's not even done yet! |
The chickens haven't laid an egg since the hurricane so I have given them a night light to see if that will get them back on track. It’s their one and only chance, by gum. If we don't have eggs - and soon - Amanda will get her roasted chicken added to the Christmas Feast.
We only have our pet rabbit left from the first rabbits, all the rest have either gone to 4H or into the oven. (Those were yummy!) To replace them I went to a livestock swap and got nine huge rabbits for only $45. That’s little better than stealing them, really, but I am never going to argue $5 each.
From watching mother rabbits raising babies for so many years I know mother rabbits start pooping in the nest box when the babies are about two-and-a-half-weeks old. They don’t do it to be messy. They actually do it for the babies to eat the soft poops. And before you say “eewwwwww,” it’s actually easy on their tummies and gives them all their mother’s gut bacteria so they can get a good start on eating solid foods. If she can eat it, they can eat it - right from the very start.
Using that information, I took fresh poo from our one remaining rabbit and mixed it with the new rabbits’ fermented grains for five days. I didn’t add very much, but I wanted to see if they could go onto a radically new food without any pain or diarrhea. It worked a treat!
The rabbits started eating the new food by the second day and never had a moment’s problem digesting it. They kept in good condition and have now been on their new feed for over three weeks.
Once processed, we will have about 45-pounds of organic rabbit meat for a total cost, including feed, of just under $2.00 a pound. Pretty good, right? (And that doesn't count the hides and skulls which will be sold on Etsy).
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| I was walking to the bedroom and had to stop to take this picture. It's like a caption of my life. A gun, a gnome, a pile of dried squirrel hides, the gourds I grew this last summer, boxes still unpacked, shoes cast off at random and a musical instrument to trip over. The picture still makes me laugh! |
As I didn't keep proper track of our harvest last month the following is only a rough estimate, but it's pretty close:
50 pounds of pork
8 gourds, about 2 pounds each
Lots of mixed veg for stir fries, about 15 pounds.
6 chickens
2 ducks
5ish pounds of sweet potatoes
(It was not the best month on the veg front, but still not too bad overall).
***Update*** Had our first egg since the hurricane this morning! The light is working! Yay! I wanted to have it soft boiled but Amanda has informed me she is baking this weekend so needs it. *sigh* I hope the chickens keep em coming or my little baker will have the lot.
Had a WONDERFUL visit by Forrest - AKA Uncle Monkey - but sadly, I only have ONE picture of the top of his head, for some reason.
I shall now add lots of other pictures though, just because I can mwahahahaaaaaa!
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| Yoga gnome ornament in Up Dog position. |
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| SUCH a tourist thing to do but how could we resist eh? |
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| A fantastic day out at Silver Springs. So far, having been to 6 springs, this one is, by far, the best! |
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| Clever Amanda to manage a selfie that has all of us in it! |
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| They are all getting so big and grownup looking. Devin towers over me now and Amanda is eye to eye. And Simon is catching up fast in the get taller than Mummy game. I don't think I really like this game! |
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ReplyDeleteRegards to your saga Georgia... Has Stephen offered any suggestions on what 'he' thinks his children's further and higher education should be there in the States? Or is it the fact that he's happy to just sit back and let you be primary carer in this 50 radius control and sort everything else out too? Is Stephen suggesting 'anything' to counter your offer of the kids getting a free education they're entitled too in the UK? Just to send out an harassment warning seems slightly cowardice on his part as though he's burying his head in the sand and hoping that the subject of discussing the impending question of his children's education will go away.
ReplyDeleteThis is not showing him a good light from the outside it seems like he's getting away with the bare minimum, in terms of effort and practical solutions in the interest of his children. I'm interested to hear what other people think about this?
He has said that they can all three get full scholarships here to cover their collage and that Devin can dual enroll in collage right now. The two problems with that (and that I have told him) the scholarship rout is not one that works anymore, having watched my friend in 4H work for a solid year just to collect enough scholarships to get her son through just TWO years of collage. After that she ran out, there are just not enough out there to get anyone through to a degree. Her son will do the two years and then go out to work. And dual enrollment? That only works if the dual enroll-er has a vehicle to get from high school to college and then back again. Again, I watched this dance with the above mentioned friend. She spent a year running her son about and waiting on him and then another year without a car while he get himself to and from the college and high school. No buses between the two, you see.
DeleteI don't understand how his mind works on this or any other issue but this I swear, I will NEVER give up and NEVER give in! The kids need a proper education and access to THEIR family, not just to their mum and dad.