TWO EGGS!!!

Well I guess Red decided she had enough of taking a backseat to Oreo. I got two eggs today!!!

This is totally cool.

To do for the weekend:

Friday night:

Clean house

Laundry

Saturday:

early...clean out the car

meet Tom at the air port to say good bye

pick up a load of rabbit poo

hopefully meet William (Peggys husband) and have coffee and give him the priviledge of working on an ancient tiller

dig some post holes

trade 3 dozen fresh eggs (ok 9 plus the promise of the rest) for moving a freezer

cut up more starter brush and bundle it

drag the extra brush to the burn pile

clean out the chicken house

combine the compost

water the baby pine trees

catch up on reading the paper (then recycle it)

THE BEAST

This is my old beast. I don't know if it is running. It has been almost 2 years since I started it. I have been trying to find someone to service it in my area without charging me an arm and a leg. I have been attempting to prepare raised beds by layering on rabbit manure and I know this will work, and soon I will possibly be no till, but until then the ground must be broken up.

My garden area is covered with Bermuda. I know this will be a problem until I can get it all tilled up. The prior owner seeded this area about a week before we closed. I wish they had told me!

But I have basically an unlimited supply of rabbit manure coming in and will be able to fill the raised bed areas deep and eventually it will be rotted and ready to plant.

I am needing a perm. border for the raised beds that I don't spend money on. I keep looking for give away cinder blocks and large landscape rocks.

I also must install a perm fence to fence off the garden area from the chickens. They already dug up some of my garlic. They just knew there was something yummy under the garlic.

I get to see my son again tonight. woohoo!

Then tomorrow, when I get home, I am going to dump the old plant pots out into the wheel barrow and mix the old dirt with compost and mulch the little pine trees. Then I will pick up the big chunks of dirt from digging those holes and throw those into the compost pile and remix the two piles into one. It is beginning to reduce in size.

Since I have the sharp shooter still, I may mark and begin to dig my post holes for the garden fence so I am ready.

In January I am supposed to plant peas. I hardly ever have luck with peas because in Texas it goes from cold to scorching but I will really try this year. I need to run water out to the garden so I don't have to run a hose.

That brings up a subject that is really on my mind as far as sustainability. WATER! I spoke to a person who had a 2000 gallon water tank with gutters running to it from the barn and the home. This is a very smart idea. I wonder how they keep it from freezing though. Not so much the 2000 gallons of water but the spigot that drains it.

I must put in the fence first and then activly start planning my alternative water. In TX we can count on a water shortage often. Planned correctly and mulched the garden doesn't take much but it still takes water. If the SHTF I will be out of luck with water at least until I can dig out the pond and make it bigger, and even then i would want an alternative.

VISIT FROM MY BOY

MY SON CAME INTO TOWN JUST PASSING THROUGH TODAY. WE HAD A BIG DINNER WITH A BUNCH OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY. IT SURE WAS GOOD TO SEE HIM.

GOOD THINGS IN A COLD DAY

Ok so not everything on a cold day is bad. With a fire in the fireplace, bread rises really fast.

And when it is cold outside, kitties curl up in tight little balls. don't you wish you were a kitty?

Well the weather is calling for ice tomorrow morning right when I leave for work. I don't do ice at all. So I am going to be proactive and here in a little while I am going to work. I am going to get caught up on my files so that if I can't get there until late tomorrow I will have already made up my time.

ps...my son is coming in from the army tomorrow just passing through. I will get to have dinner with him!

TURNING WEATHER

Well just like everything else in TX, after being 80 degrees for 2 days, we woke this morning to roaring N winds and dropping temps. Clouds are racing across the sky in an attempt to flee. This will not be a good day for my protectors to play outside.

They seem to know this. As they woke, they brought their blankets quietly into the living room and sat in front of the fireplace. The room is quiet as they eat orange slices. Just the sound of the wind and the pinging of the warming fireplace.

Jayden quietly asks how Santa comes down the chimney. I advice him that, although I have tried many times to catch him, I never have, so I don't know. That seems to satisfy him for now.

I can remember no better memories than sitting in front of a fire at my Granny Browning's house. I am so glad I can provide these memories for my grand boys.

NEW CABINETS IN THE CHICKEN HOUSE

Well Santa came today and I helped him put up cabinets in the front of the chicken house. These are salvaged cabinets that came from my old house that I sold and that was going to be bulldozed.


I will be able to keep chicken meds, first aid kit, and assorted stuff in there.


The rest of the cabinets will go into the garage part of the shed for garage stuff.


I painted one wall in the kitchen in preparation to receive my dad's freezer that he is giving me. I will also be pulling in a book shelf (also salvaged from the old house) and put it on the same wall if it will fit. This shelf will hold all of my jars of canned produce from my garden. (optimistic aren't it?) or all of the things I am stocking up on in preparation for the disaster our economy will become in the next year.


Tonight I am stressing badly about money. Why didn't I pay off all of my credit cards instead of going to the movies, eating out, etc. I could have done much better with my money last spring and summer.


Thank goodness I love cabbage and ham.

HOME MADE BREAKFAST

MY PROTECTORS DESERVE A REALLY GOOD BREAKFAST AFTER PROTECTING THEIR NANNA ALL NIGHT, WORKING IN THE DARK IN THE YARD TO TAKE THE TRASH OUT,GET THE POTS TO THE GARAGE, ETC.

SO I MADE HOME MADE PANCAKES IN MY CAST IRON SKILLET. THEN I COOKED OREO'S EGGS THAT I HAVE BEEN SAVING ALL WEEK FOR TODAY. PANCAKES AND EGGS.

JAYDEN ONLY LIKES THE WHITES, DAKOTA LIKES THE YELLOW AND THE WHITES.

JAYDEN LIKES TONS OF SYRUP AND BUTTER ON HIS PANCAKES, DAKOTA LIKES NO BUTTER AND ONLY JELLY....OH NO! NO JELLY! LAST NIGHT I REALIZED I WAS GETTING READY TO LOSE MY "GREATEST NANNA IN THE WORLD" TITLE.

HOW CAN I NOT HAVE JELLY FOR ONE OF MY PROTECTORS?

I'M THINKING I'M THINKING.....

I HAVE ORANGES....

I HAVE PINEAPPLES.....

I HAVE SUGAR.....

I HAVE PECTIN....

HERE IT IS AT THE BEGINNING OF COOKING...

HERE IT IS AT THE END OF COOKING....

AND NOW I HAVE ORANGE/PINEAPPLE JAM/MARMALADE FOR MY LITTLEST PROTECTOR.
YUM YUM...