Why am I cold?

I am cold this morning.  It is 54F/12C. This is downright chilly for high summer out here. 

You know how you are fast asleep in bed but woken by being cold but not THAT cold, just cold enough to WANT to get up and get another cover for the bed, but NOT cold enough to wake up and GET another cover for the bed.  So you just lie there feeling cold. Well, that is me. The lazy shiverer. 

We are in for beautiful days though. In the 70’s this week. Great for loading hay.

I bought another hundred bales of grass hay. Hay is not cheap this year either – these were four dollars a bale. With no rain in the forecast (I hope) Alissa and I can take our time loading it into the barn. Grass hay bales  are not as heavy. 

The mini capsicums are beginning to colour and they are fantastic. They have another name but I have forgotton what it is. They are not the shape of  a bell pepper – they are squatter and have a flat botttom – perfect for stuffing. 

Really small. Smaller than a tiny ramikin. You can pop a whole one in your mouth.  Anyway we had them last night stuffed with pork and herbs and blue cheese.  Along with a fresh beans. And a parsley cream sauce.

Very good dinner.

I need to go back through my book and see what they are called – i think they will sell well. Yesterday I took a car full of eggplant, and bell peppers and eggs and cherry tomatoes and herbs over to load into Jakes truck for the farmers market. It was a bright and cheerful delivery.  We made the rosemary and thyme up into little bouquets. I hope they will sell better that way.

On Thurday we officially change the last of the feed over to GMO free. I have found a very good supplier at a resonable cost if I buy in bulk.  And if everything my pigs eat is GMO free then I have a good shot at the Chicago chefs market for my pork.  The pork is raised on milk and eggs too so both the cow and the chickens need to be on clean feed as well.  Easy enough for the cow.

The feed is very competitive in price if I buy from growers who are not yet  certified organic. It takes three years of them growing on clean fields before they can be officially organic. In the interim their grain is way lower than the cost of organic.  But they are certainly Non GMO. I can never be organic – surrounded by GM fields as I am.

I have been doing this in small increments but now I will  be buying this feed by the ton on a regular basis. This gave me a discount too.

So I am pleased.

I have told Alissa that we can go to Fall hours now – starting at 7.30am. I am just so tired at night and without the meat chickens we can start a little later and still  be ok I think.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Love celi

Weather: 75 degrees in AUGUST!

Wednesday 08/23 0% / 0 inSunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High near 75F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.

Wednesday Night 08/23 10% / 0 inClear skies. Low 52F. Winds light and variable.

71 responses to “Why am I cold?”

  1. You’d think a bale would weigh the same whatever it was, but as I recall, straw is the lightest, then grass hay, then lucerne/alfalfa. I reckon I could still sling bales of straw, but hay’s beyond my strength these days. I like the idea of clean food all the way up and down the food chain, from the soil up…

  2. Lovely and cool here this morning too, with a perfectly clear blue blue sky. 17c right now at 8am, with an expected high of 23. Perfect weather. Hope you have a lovely day too. ~ Mame 🙂

  3. Are they peppadew peppers? Little bit of heat but sweet also?

    It is raining again here in Texas? What’s up with all this rain? Not complaining – but just amazed by it.

    So explain grass hay, vs your field hay? I think I know, but it will be a good ‘lesson’ for all of us I think. Carole over at Red Dirt explain straw vs hay one day and I had never really ‘thought’ about that difference. Happy Wednesday!

  4. Good Morning! So agree– the typical midwest August is so hot and, normally, dry. An anomaly year for certain 🙂 We always feed grass hay rather than 100% alfalfa. Not enough local straw here in the bluffs, so grass hay is both good food and good bedding for the outside cats & dogs. Those lovely little peppers! I buy them pickled from the deli olive bar at our KC area HenHouse markets… will have to look for the name next time. Enjoy that good clean hay-summertime scent — in your spare time! (ps – really liked the initial newsletter!)

  5. So happy you are getting your hay laid away for the winter! Worrying about whether you will have enough is absolutely no fun!!! We were lucky to find non-sprayed hay for $3.00 a square bale this summer! Super fortunate! Some years we have to pay up to $5.00 per bale!

      • Can’t comment on hay fields, but GMO/ “roundup ready” grain crops are sprayed just before harvest – they call it “dessication” – to ensure the entire field “ripens” at the same time: so any straw is suspect unless you know the source is non-GMO… ):):

      • They spray the hay with both roundup, and grazon. The grazon stays on the grasses, even when ingested by our goats, and still takes forever, years even, to break down in the manure. If still active in the manure and put into the compost, and then into the garden, it can stunt vegetable growth and cause other plant damage in the garden. So we have to search out those who don’t spray…., and sadly there are not many that don’t.

  6. It’s fall here also…the trees and weeds…and fall blooming plants are very Fall feeling. We sell out pure alfalfa hay for $4 a bale…the grass people here are charging $8 so you did well.

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