a reminder to myself

Written on August 14, 2007 and edited to reflect 2009!

My motto is:  Living a Simple Life on a Little Bit of Land.

Living: Living is active.  I want to be busy.  Not with busy work, but with important tasks.  I want to sit down at the end of the day and be able to see what I have done.  I think that is why I like to crochet and knit.  There is progress you can identify.  It wasn’t there and now it is.  Reading is active; working logic/sudoku puzzles is active; tv/movies are not active.

That isn’t to say that we don’t watch movies.  Right now we are plowing our way through Chuck and Kyle XY from Netflix.  It is something our family does together in the evening when everyone has finished their work.

Simple Life: A Simple Life is one with a focus or purpose.   Our purpose is clearly stated in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  It says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  How our family chooses to do this by living close to the land.  We find our calling in nurturing this little homestead.

Nurturing the homestead means we will not have more animals than our land can feed.  This is becoming increasingly important as the food supply for people and animals becomes more tainted.  If we import feed (like hay) we make sure we know the source and its condition.    We are fortunate.  “Hay Bob” cuts our hay only 0.75 miles from our barn.  We can see it growing.  We know how and when he harvests it.

Nurturing the homestead means keeping all plant, animal and food waste right here.  We compost it to feed the new trees and garden.  We never apply commercial herbicides or pesticides.  If a bug needs squashing then one of us better get out there and squash it.  It isn’t always pleasant, but it is necessary.  Nurturing the animals means giving them a life as close to natural as possible.   They are free to wander the pasture and eat what appeals to them.   I believe they get a better mix of nutrients this way.   They also fertilize their own pasture.  That means nobody has to spread poo!

Nurturing ourselves includes a return to the old ways.  We knit, crochet, quilt, embroider, cross-stitch, draw, and sew.  We eat a very simple diet.  It is well rounded and provides us with abundant nutrition, but it isn’t exotic. We garden.  We can, dehydrate, and cold storage food.  We split firewood with an ax.  We heat with wood.  We read and we talk.

On a Little Bit of Land: This reminds me to “bloom where I am planted.”  We bought this little bit of land in May 1997.  God willing, we will be here until we are planted in the ground.  I am content with my home.  Not that I don’t putter about fixing it up or planting new flowers, but I am content to be here the rest of my days.

snow storm

Total for the storm:  8-10 inches of snow, 1 inch of sleet, 1 inch of ice

KGH–These are of what used to be the “back pasture.”  It was mostly just tall weeds and 2 foot trees when you last visited.  Today they are 10-20 feet tall and the weeds are mostly blackberry brambles.

snow and ice

snow angel

HM just  had one of those blonde moments!  They’re sort of rare these days, but this was a good one.

Said while rubbing her head as she walked through the door:  Now I know whey they call them snow angels not ice angels.

genetics, wool, and butchering

Eddie 2

He came; he procreated; he became a pest; he died.

Eddie2’s life can be summed up in those words.  He came to our place for the sole purpose of propagating Shetland Sheep genes.  He did his work well and with great delight.  He then became a grouch that wouldn’t let us in the sheep fence without a fight– just trying to defend his girls, but that sort of behavior has no place on our homestead.

Doesn’t he have a beautiful fleece?  I hope he passes those genes on.  With 5 ewes currently expecting lambs, we hope to see some lovely coats this next year.  The question is:  will HM and I do anything with them?  We still don’t have an answer to that.

Yesterday was butchering day.  I hate butchering day.  I hate the killing.  I hate the blood.  I hate the smell of warm, raw meat.  We started at 11 am and finished at 6 pm.  We gave half the meat to the butcher boy (MA quit, so now another boy comes to do it.) and we still have enough mutton in the freezer to feed Jake for a month or more.

HM and I will probably never eat it.   Everytime we think about it, we see the guy in the picture.  Soon we’ll forget all about his bad behavior.  About that time Eddie 3 will arrive and the cycle will begin again.

Kim

trail 1 in the winter

We took advantage of a lovely Winter day yesterday.  It got up near 50 degrees.   When MA was done working, we loaded up the dogs, and went to Charlestown State Park again.  We headed back to trail 1.   This time we did the whole trail–2.63 miles, classified rugged.

HM and MA kept trading Opal and the camera.  We still don’t have any pictures of HM!

Kim and Jake

MA and Opal

The End of the Easy Part

About 1/3 through

Large Rock

14 Mile Creek

Starting Back Up

i goofed

I goofed.  I put the wrong link to Jake’s dog blog.  The link I put is one I’m working on for a small dog training business!

The correct link is Gentle Trust

Kim

winter and animals

We’ve had some really cold weather this week.  Our animals are pretty well set to handle normal Indiana weather, but this was an Alberta Clipper coupled with an Artic front.  Brr . . .

We piled 6 additional inches of hay in the chicken coop house and put as much as we could in their yard.  The problem with hay in their yard is they scratch it down to dirt in a matter of weeks.  So we’re constantly adding new.  They seem to have stayed warm.  Their water froze over within 10 minutes of being set out.  So HM and AN needed to go out a lot to water them.

The rabbits fared better.  They carry around a nice fur coat.  We still piled as much hay as we could into their shelter.  These goofy critters ate it as fast as the girls could carry it.  Same water problem.  Frozen in minutes.  Thankfully rabbits don’t drink that much!

The goats hung out in the hay room of the barn.  Yep, that’s why our hay supply is going fast this year.  They figured out how to jump the gate between the halves!  They are warm and fat!

The sheep didn’t seem to notice the weather.  They don’t like the wind though.  They just stayed in the barn while it was windy and came out to nibble every time the wind stopped.  They are so wooly that I can’t tell if they are fat or not.

The sheep and goats share a 100 gallon stock tank.  It froze solid.  One gigantic ice cube!  HM broke a pitch fork trying to break a hole in the ice.  They have smaller rubber feed bowls.  We used those for a while, but then they froze to the ground and froze solid as well.  In the end she carried water out to them in my dishpans.

The human animals stayed huddled in the living room as much as possible.  The girls would do the animals and come in to thaw by the stove.  Poor AN didn’t much school work done, but she had a good time!

One thing I learned this winter — the chicken coop shouldn’t  be so close to the house.  Our cat is extremely pleased with this winter’s hunting, but I am not amused.  We’ve had more mice than usual.  So as beautiful as my chicken coop is, I am afraid CK will have to build another back by the garden.  I’m not sure if he’ll be able to get to it before next winter, but I hope!

Kim

jake has a new blog

Jake and I have a new dog blog.  That will clear Hedges’ Happenings for homestead, environmental, and family news.

The new blog is Gentle Trust

So come on over there and visit, but stay tuned here too!  We’ll be back to normal non-Jake postings soon.   And hopefully we’ll have some guest blogs by HM too.

Kim

puppy class #2

This week PD and Einstein picked us up for class. Jake got to romp a bit with Einstein before we headed off to class. It is a long ride for such a little man, so he took a nap on the way.

At class we practiced sit, down, watch me, name recognition, recall, and some leash walking. This week the trainer distracted the pups and we called them. Jake looked at me instantly! I was so proud. He has an awesome recall. Fast, happy, and direct!

This week we added stand, roll over, and introduction to stay. He also had proper dog to dog introductions with 10 new dogs, and met 6 new people including an adorable little boy.

Jake already knew stand, we’d started roll over on Monday, but stay was new. We’ve only introduced it a few times. By Thursday he would down-stay for 1 minute with me walking around him, hopping, dancing, and spinning in a circle. We haven’t worked on sit-stay or stand-stay. Down-stay is much easier for a big dog. I want to set him for success, so I concentrate on the easiest part first.

He fell asleep on his blanket at 7:40. He just couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Kim

12 weeks

Are you ready for some serious cuteness?  These picture were taken by AN (a friend of ours)  in the car on the way home from the vet and Petsmart.  Poor man was exhausted!   He’d been poked, prodded, and stuck.

He is 20 inches tall and 32 pounds.  He just finished quite a growth spurt–6 pounds and 1.5 inches in a week.  Whew!

Done at the vets

completely worn out

Puppy Class #1

Jake and I attended our first training class at the Greater Louisville Training Club on Tuesday evening.  It was a night of adventure for Jake.

First we went and picked up my good friend PD and her GSD Einstein.  Einstein is a huge, playful 17 month old.  PD and Einstein were going for basic obedience class.  Einstein rode in the cargo area of the Mountaineer.  He kept popping his over the seat to look at Jake.  It was Jake’s first time to ride in the backseat alone.  There was a bit of whining, but he did settle down shortly after we got on the interstate.

Jake and I were there for puppy class.   There were only two of us in the class.  Buffy is a cute, 3 month old Corgi.  She’s adorable and she knows it!   We worked on name recognition, watch me, and sit.  Jake was awesome.  Even with 30-40 dogs in the same place, along with all the people, he did every command the first time.  We even showed off his recall, down, and his beginning heel.  He was lovin’ it.  Although at 7:30, he decided it was nap-time!  He’s normally sound asleep by 7, up for a bit around 8:30, and then right back to bed by 9:15.  So this was a late night for him!

Our home work was to continue working on the three areas we covered.   Jake gets bored quickly with commands that he knows.  So we are reviewing watch me, leave it, sit, down, stand, puppy push-ups (sit, down, sit), bring it, drop it, go get it, and gimme five.  We’re continuing to learn heel, polite walking on a leash, collar (which means he puts his head through his collar or harness), get off, and bang (our version of play dead).

I’ll post some pictures tomorrow after his vet visit.

Kim

CSP-Trail 1

We went back to Charlestown State Park on January 2.  CK met us there after a short work day.  The weather was delightful, more like November than January.  We saw a few cars and a group of 5, but other than that we had the trail to ourselves.  Hannah manned the camera again.  She wasn’t able to get many shots of the trail–the memory card was nearly full.  Next time we go, we’ll have a free memory card!

This was a short hike, just at a mile.  We wanted to get Jake familiar with the park, trails, and procedure.  On our hikes at home he is off lead.  In Indiana state parks, dogs must be on a six foot lead.

See my big carhart coat.  It is actually way big on me.  That way I can wear my regular coat underneath in very cold weather.  I have a pair of matching bib overalls too.  It sure helps keep me warm, but it takes me a few minutes to get all my gear on.   I am getting faster though.

Jake is 17 1/2 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds.   His coat is so soft and silky.  We’re beginning to see traces of his adult coat pattern coming in.  He looks like he will have more brown than Max.

getting ready to hike

Trailhead 1

What? I’m just sniffin’