Wide Awake!

Isn't it funny how I hit snooze 5 times on workdays and can still barely get up when I have to - and then this weekend I bounded out of bed by 7:30 AM all on my own, with no alarm at all!? My husband likes to say that he can work 14 hours on the farm and not feel as tired as after 8 hours on the clock.

This promises to be a productive day and I'll be back later on to post about it. Just thought I'd stop in and wish every one a good morning! Enjoy your day! :)

Weird/Bad Dreams

I have really weird, and usually scary, dreams several times a month. Brian says I'm crazy but I blame it on watching too much America's Most Wanted as a child. Watching CSI in recent years probably doesn't help either.

Last night we went to the snowmobile races. Several of our friends were racing and it was a pretty good show. There were a couple wipe outs that made me cringe but no one got hurt. We got home around 11 PM.

I let the dogs out right away but soon after I let them back in I heard our cat, Baxter, meowing frantically. He was outside on our front porch!! Now in the summer he does go in and out as he pleases but he hasn't been outside since the first frost last fall and he never tries to get out when it is this cold. I still don't understand how he got out. Brian insists that he must have darted out when we left and I hope he's right. Our door was unlocked and I question whether someone stopped by but I still think they would have pretty much had to throw him outside to get him to go. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

So the cat was fine although the dog had obviously mauled him. They play nicely in the house but outside he does not defend himself and Maci gets about half of him in her mouth at once. He was wet with drool and had little snowballs hanging off of him. I cleaned him up with a bath towel, then went to bed around 11:30 PM.

I had weird dreams off and on most of the night. First I was dreaming about some kind of hostage situation, then someone running from the cops, then I started to dream that our friends had a sick baby and they were calling me to ask how to take care of it. That last part makes a lot of sense because people call me constantly to ask how to take care of their sick pets. They baby thing was a new one though.

So in my dream, I could here this baby making funny noises in the background. Then, at 3:04 AM, I sat straight up in bed and realized it was our cat making those horrible noises!! It sounded exactly like cats that come in the clinic who are blocked and can't urinate. That is a very painful condition and they make sad, pitiful noises when it happens. I woke Brian up because I was scared to go looking for Baxter myself in case he was in a lot of pain. I told him that Baxter was either sick or he had another mouse. We had a Momma mouse move in to our kitchen and he has been catching the babies.

Well, needless to say Brian was very confused and so I jumped out of bed and went to figure it out. I found Baxter batting a mouse around under the kitchen table. Thank god!! I didn't disturb him and went to lay back in bed.

I left the light on while I lied there and tried to think happy thoughts. I figured out a long time ago that if I go straight back to sleep my dreams will just pick up were they left off. Then at 3:24 AM, Brian's boss called. Brian got up and went to work since the wind was blowing and the roads were getting bad. I fell back asleep after he left and sleep without incidence until this morning!

Do you folks ever have bad or weird dreams? Why do you think that happens? If you don't, what's your secret? Am I crazy like Brian says or is this more common than I think?

P.S. Those rooting for the mouse can breathe easy for now, I think it got away and is hiding behind the gun cabinet. Baxter just took a break from siting in front of it to come over and try to lay on the keyboard.

Lemons

Wow - what a great blogging community this is! I can't express how wonderful everyone has been by leaving wonderful comments here. So, you can imagine how touched I was to receive The Lemonade Award - twice!



From my understanding, this award is meant for people who are positive, show gratitude, and of course: make lemons out of lemonade!

The rules for this award are that you post the graphic for it, write a post that links back to the giver, and then pass it on to up to ten others. Leave a comment on the blogs that get the award, so they know what's happened.

First, I would like to thank Joyce at tallgrassworship (haha does this sound like a Grammy speech?) for passing along the award and for spreading the word about the fire with the other APLS.

Thanks to Ruth at Everydaywoman as well for also passing this award my way. I don't think I ever commented back to you but you should know (& Abbie too!) that by sharing the story of your family's barn burning you really helped me to see past this. We are so lucky that our animals are okay - I'm sure it was very hard on your husband to lose that bull.

Also, I am relieved to see that I haven't come across as whiny on here. It is such a weird, vulnerable feeling that comes after something like this and everyone's comments have made me feel at ease.

And now for the fun part! I am passing this award along to:

Julie over at A Celebration Of Our Journey. She is a caring, creative mother and wife who devotes much of her time to making life better for her son, who has been diagnosed with Autism. I can only imagine the challenges she faces day to day and applaud all her hard work!

Heather at Simple-Green-Frugal. I have followed her blog for awhile now. She has mentioned some problems with her health but I would have never suspected that from her upbeat, encouraging posts. She constantly supplies good advice for living a greener life and comes up with the best local recipes. I'm glad she's around to motivate all of us!

Sharon at Casaubon's Book. Sharon is a very busy author and mother so I won't be offended at all if she doesn't post this on her blog. However, she definitely deserves this award. She offers a tremendous amount of useful information and advice for dealing with the problems of today's world. Recently, she has faced up to some negative press and turned it in to an opportunity to blow them out of the water with more than one thrilling blog post. Way to go Sharon. :)

I hope everyone enjoys the award, it did brighten my day!

Disaster at the Farm

Don't know where to start - there was a fire at the farm here today. Half of our big shed is ruined along with the big lean-to we added on last fall. Thank god for our dogs, we were trying to sleep in this morning and they saw the fire out the window and barked until we woke up. It was too late to stop the fire but we saved all the cattle, the tractors, and the hay. Losses include all of the corn and oats we had kept to feed and heat our house, plus our planter and multiple gravity wagons/corn wagons. Our friends and neighbors have already rallied around us and helped in every way possible. We are so grateful.
I took some video of the damage today so I'll be posting that if I can get it to load properly. I figured this will be a part of the farm's history and we might as well record it to show our kids someday. It just feels like I've been punched in the stomach. I'll be posting updates in the coming days.

Sunday Stroll

Here's found I saw today as I walked around the yard.

The garden freshly mulched for winter:




Lots of hay ready to be fed:



The last of the new landscaping, until spring:



Chickens happily eating apple scraps:



And then later, it snowed!!:



Check out who else is stolling today over at Quiet Country House.

Today I'm thankful for the space we have here to call our own. It is so nice to relax at home on a weekend and take a break from the rest of the world. I love having the yard to decorate the way I like and the house that feels more like home every day.

Bob Waldrop and Someday: A Tri-Cities Food Coop!?

So I attended a very interesting presentation Tuesday night titled, "Re-inventing the Family Farm". I found the flyer at the Greenstone Farm Credit office of all places, which made me a little leery to attend. However, the presentation was by Robert Waldrop, President and General Manager of the Oklahoma Food Coop. The coop is incredibly successful, more so than I would have ever expected.

Mr. Waldrop was hosted by Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU), almost an hour away from where I live. I had no idea there was so much great work in progress at SVSU. They are working on everything from vermiculture and hydroponics to alternative energy development. For more information on the projects going on there check out the Green Cardinal (the cardinal is the school mascot) and the last few posts on Bob Waldrop's blog. While you're on Bob's blog scroll down to the post about 20 Things to Do Now that the Election is Over. I found it very interesting and motivating.

So, back to the presentation. Really it was mostly practical advice and tips on how to start and operate a large food coop. I have considered in the past the idea of trying to start a small coop in my area but I decided my efforts would be better spent on producing the food and direct marketing on my own. Although I would love to help out with a big coop, I was really hoping for more information from the producer's standpoint.

The excitement came at the end for me when I spoke with Dr. Christopher Schilling, he is one of the SVSU faculty heading up this initiative and the man doing most of the research I mentioned earlier. I described our situation to him, i.e. that we have 74 acres we are cash crop farming and we are looking for a way to make the land more productive. I also shared that we are starting out with some freezer beef and eggs and that I would be very interested in being a part of any future coop. My interest was welcomed and encouraged.

It was so thrilling to be around a group with so much positive energy towards this subject. It is easy to feel discouraged as we try to get the farm going. The presentation was exactly what I needed to get me looking on the bright side again.

On a side note, I've also been slowly making my way through You Can Farm by Joel Salatin. I was a little disappointed when I read his Salad Bar Beef but You Can Farm is wonderful! I'll post a book review when I'm done. Between the book and the presentation I am feeling über motivated.

If you'd like to share your thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

Oops - almost forgot. Today I am thankful for my ability to learn, and the freedom we have in the USA to do what we want with our lives and share information.