Playing farmer

Strange to think one month is already gone in this year. Plans and tires on the property just keep spinning due to all the mud. House still has several things dragging along. If you've read the posts above this is what I get for praying for more patience. It is still true that every night has a dawn , so every season has an end. I try and appreciate each season and what it brings, would be a lie if I said more hours of sunshine already did not excite me. After the day job I can finish up most chores without my headlamp now.

I was blessed to borrow a tractor and move a pile of dirt the septic installer said he was waiting on. It was 10 hours on a 30 degree day moving dirt across the property. Usually a job I get bored with fast, but had a cob full of a VA flake on reload all day. That balanced with strong black coffee kept me moving.
Lunch time I was treated by an older couple down the road stopping to ask if I wanted any lunch. I've done a few easy things around their house for them and since they always check on me if they hear me outside for a while. I think my little place brings them memories of when they were my age. Which from their stories they worked me under the table back in the day, they were real farmers when their health/age allowed it. They do throw in they have a single granddaughter about my age, I always laugh them off and give them some eggs.

Their visit stayed on my mind the rest of the day. I could have thought about how I was cold, how noisy the tractor was, how I was doing work someone else had agreed to do, how my hours here meant that something else on the list was neglected. Which would be so easy to do. Instead I thought of that couple, how in their eyes and words I can hear a longing to be able to sit on a tractor all day and do exactly what I was doing. Jobs I might rush through they would relish the chance to do again. Their memory of the old wood house they started in, which I bet was so full of love it almost pushed the nails out of the boards. They'd probably hear the chickens over hearing the tractor, and think how good it was going to feel to warm up after a honest days work. And the woman who hugged me before she left and told me she was rooting for me. Another human , with no benefit other than wishing me happiness was rooting for me. I am truly blessed beyond anything I deserve. Even if I have to repeat that at nauseum to get through my think head.

Great post, Travis. It's always educational to look at the world through someone else's eyes.

Hey, maybe that granddaughter comes with a tractor. You never know.

Last month or so has been busy , and will just be getting busier. Usually will slow down mid summer but with the house this year not sure if that will happen. 

House wise the wall insulation is all installed. Dad would hang during the day while I was at work , and I would clean up the work area, measure and cut enough at night for him to install the next day.  I laughed at the elves/cobbler rotation we had going. Working at home it is very hard to sit at this computer and hear someone working on my house, even worse when its my dad. 

Next up are ceilings so we can blow in the insulation. Will be nights and weekends for me on that. None of the stores around hand the ceiling panels I wanted so they are on order. Hopefully they will be in soon. Going with the 4X8 sheets of plywood style beadboard. with 4inch boards running along the seams.  Looks better in photos than sounds when typed out. 
Any other update would sound to much like complaining about the various companies Im working with. Which helps nothing so better left unsaid --- That's the update for me playing carpenter/ home builder

Playing Farmer is just as busy currently. Got a dozen baby ducks to raise up and add to the rotation. They will help fill the freezer and some egg cartons. There are several home cooks in my family that are excited for them.  Chickens are laying about 2 dozen a day now so that's in steady supply. One rabbit had a litter Sunday, haven't even counted how many yet. The other two rabbits should have litters by this weekend. Already put 20 or so quail in the freezer. We have another 30 that should hatch out by the 15th. Adding a few extra quail back because their eggs are my dads favorite, and even if he does not each as much as he did, takes lots of quail eggs to keep him fed.

So meat wise  (skip if this math is boring.) 

Have 10 older hens to process    3lbs each so    30lbs
20 quail already in freezer with 25ish quail more to butcher within 20 months    14or so ounces each so lets say  25lbs
3 litters of rabbits if we average 5 a litter thats 15 to put in freezer.  At 2.5 lbs each thats almost 40lbs of meat there. 
6 or so ducks to cull in 2 months. 7lbs each thats 40 or so lbs 
2 deer that made their way into the freezer as well which was about 75lbs combined as they were smallish and didnt all come to me.

So in just a few weeks work thats 210Lbs of good meat in the freezer.     And the rabbits will do another 2 rounds this year, so 80 more,  meat chickens will be 150lbs  10 more ducks so 70 quail 5 more rounds so another 50 or so pounds easily.   So without including hunting or fishing can easily put 500lbs of meat in the freezer and stomachs of my family and friends.
And most of this is done in about 10 hours a week or so chore wise.  Crazy to think I used to sit in a car that long a week driving to a job I hated, and produced far less good. 
 
So meat wise the freezer is fine for a while. The vegetable freezer is getting a bit empty. Good thing about a month ago started tomatoes, peppers , and some things in the green house, and even more last weekend. Greenhouse time is some of my favorite. All the problems , stresses, everything slows down. The present pounding, ringing in my head is slowed down. Electric company, pluming seals, septic vents,  wall paint color, construction cost increasing % every month. These things are slowed until they are not just out of focus but they are gone. 

There are brief passing thoughts of how good this squash will taste ,  how pretty the okra flowers will be, how the corn will wave in the storms, walking through rows to pick dinner with bees and birds doing the same. Filling bags into car trunks of strangers who become friends, the comfort of simply knowing no matter how bad something gets, I have food.

These thoughts seem important but pass like clouds also. The real pleasure is focusing on the simple task of making soil blocks and putting a seed in them.  Each time its a little bit of hope, and belief there will be a tomorrow.  The miracle of simple life of dirt and a seed. I feel for people who think miracles don't happen anymore, I spent the weekend plating 100s of them.  Even at what can seem the worst of times, I am blessed beyond anything I deserve.    And at the end of the planting as I close the door to the greenhouse I remember my grandmother and repeat her words " grow my babies" 

Sounds great dervis.
I'm a big believer in a freezer full of meat - of course all mine came from the grocery store.
I keep a ridiculous number of "flats" of canned goods in the "pantry" too.

I am planning to buy some bison for the freezer this spring. There is a place nearby that raises bison and sells the meat, hides, skulls - by appointment only.
Bison "hamburger" and steaks have a wonderful flavor.

The most gardening my wife and I do these days is going to be herbs this summer.
That'll be nice for cooking and homemade sausage/brats.

👍🏻😄👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🐣🦆🐓🦢🐇🐇🦨🌶🫑🌽🥦🚜🚜🚜🚜. Keep on reminding us of a more simple and good life.

👍🏻Good work young man!