THROW IN THE TOWEL
Again with the daily rain. And these are not gentle summer rains. These are full on furious thunder and lightening storms with torrential downpours of inches at a time.
Everything is hot and wet all the time. I think we should start mowing the cover of weeds on my 160 acres. Soon those weeds will start to flower and go to seed and then we are in trouble. Of course that is an impossible task and I am kidding but not kidding.
The week days are so busy now that I thought I would do my midweek report without pictures. So much faster for me and keeps you in the loop.
It has dawned sopping and hot. I have recently had two Airbnb cancellations due to weather. Too rainy.
The piglets continue to grow but for the first time ever Poppy rolled onto and killed a healthy three day old piglet. She is just too hot and slow this time. Quite distressed with the heat. She still is not eating right or drinking enough water and even though I hose her off as much as possible, I work six hours a day. And losing a piglet was a result of me not being here.
So I am doubly glad of my decision to quit with the baby pigs.
The rest are doing well. But I am still on the watch for trouble. The rain does nothing to alleviate the heat – we are living in the tropics in rainy season.
Still no sign of Mrs Flowers. But she has not been gone a month yet. I will still give her the benefit of a doubt. She may just be nesting.
The cows are doing well. The ducks are happy as, well, ducks. The groups of hogs in their fields lay about in wallows or disappear into their long beautiful overgrown pastures. And Sheila and Tane are both improving with their intake of whole raw milk.
Anna is staying for a few weeks – she is working at the mill for me so that will be a great help and I hope to pull ahead with some of my projects. But I am still overloaded and am also thinking this may be my last season milking.
So that is me up to date. How about you?
Celi
The heat seems to be alleviating – thank goodness.
47 Comments on “THROW IN THE TOWEL”
Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER:
DO A LITTLE SHOPPING:
Thank You So Much For Your Kind Help with Maintaining This Blog
I’m not nearly as busy as you. This past weekend is the start of our summer season so there will be plenty of traffic through the bakery, but I’ve cut back the number of days I’m open; Thursday – Sunday now. I need the beginning of the week to catch up on other chores and do supply runs. No action on the sale of this place, I think it will take some time. I don’t like being in limbo.
I hope you can sort a sale before winter. I agree about waiting to jump into your next adventure- it is a bit stressful
crazy weather here too, but I’m not worrying about little bitties so I have nothing to complain about. hope you get some relief very soon
Once I get Del To once a day milking it will be easier.
I’m finally have my small (8.86 acre) mini-farm on the market to sell and because of the torrential rains and the extreme heat, I’m not getting any showings. I’m not far from you, in Southern Indiana.
Sorry to hear about the piglet. Darn shame that is.
Nine acres is such a lovely size. I am sure you are wanting the right people to hand over to as well.
I am so sorry about the little piglet & Poppy’s miseries, but this can’t be your fault. You can’t be everywhere at all times, even if you stayed home. It seems like this could be the summer of your discontent, but a stretch of glorious sun & cooler temperatures would help everyone there. We all hope for you that less extreme weather comes very soon. Does Poppy drink the raw milk too?
I too sense the discontent (a perfect word right now) in this post. C is a person always on the go, but little nuances have come into the blog hinting at growing change as she goes forward. Our upside-down natural forces seem to be driving much of that change.
I agree- there has been much to adapt to this summer – not least of all: a retiring husband.
Funny old world, we have the Sun all day albeit with lower temperatures you want, and we are totally parched craving your daily downpours.
Hope Mrs Flowers has not had an altercation with the bastard mink, but is sitting on big clutch of healthy pea babies.
Sad about Poppy not bouncing back as quickly as she should. Laura
I too worry about Mrs Flowers. Fingers crossed
Wet & Hot – dangerous combination for all kinds a lung issues and sores. Where we moved further north of Fort Worth they are bailing hay – but huge round bails. I thought IF only I had a Semi truck, I would drive up to Ms C’s house with the truck load of the hay. And I do have a truck driver friend that has the rig – just no trailer. Hum…. How many bails could a flat bed semi haul? and then with ROUND bails – where could the little farm store them? Hummmmm……
I did get round bales last winter and they were so convenient but those big ones do take up a lot of room! What a lovely thought though
We’ve been watching your weather and seeing how brutal it has been. The farm must be a giant mud bath. We are thinking of you often.
Surely the rain must stop soon!
Poor Poppy and baby.
Interesting how mother pigs take no notice of their dead babies.
Mother Nature spared them black pig depression & grief (visible to us anyway). They have too many other mouths to feed & their own bodies to maintain. I hope she rests well at night & perks up soon.
It is a limit cooler today and it has helped her a lot. The humidity is the killer.
Oh dear – I suppose when you’ve had as many as she’s had, you loose count.
She only minds the live ones. But we must remember that they are pigs not people
Indeed!
We haven’t had the hellacious storms you’ve had, thank goodness! Just enough to nourish the garden, which is growing well. We pretty much depend on it to eat! We are getting blue, black and raspberries, tomatoes, green beans, sugar snap peas, eggplant, zucchini, and the peppers are just coming on. We’ve harvested our potatoes onions and garlic, and have replanted more cucumbers and as the first crop didn’t do so well. It’s been the first coolish summer in many years, so we definitely cannot complain! Hoping you dry up there very soon!!! xoxoxo
Your garden sounds wonderful
They should have gone into their creep because you know what is best for them. Hopefully tomorrow being a holiday (and I realize there is no such thing for a farmer) you will have a day to catch up with yourself. I am going to try to do that for myself since I stay pretty busy, too. Have a great day. Sorry about Poppy’s piglet.
For sure! I look forward to getting my bedroom in order – that will be better.
We are in the middle of yet another loud and horrendous storm. Luckily got the dogs out just before as there’s so much in the Gulf moving inland. It will be brutally hot once the clouds leave. (And the week leap up so high so fast here, too)
Hard to believe that days are already shortening bit by little bit and summer is mid-done.
Take care of yourself. Things turn out as they will no matter what we do (or try to drive ourselves crazy trying to control that)
So will you be moving to beef cattle and poultry/eggs? Change is hard, but that is what keeps us afloat.
My plan is to buy in the show piglets that are rejected by the show people. Plus the duck and chicken eggs. Beef is going to be a hard sell this year with the lack of feed both hay and corn. Many beef farmers will be culling their stock.
Glad we still have the opportunity for watching piglets grow up, even if they aren’t born on the farm 🙂
We found 2 peacock eggs a little before her sabbatical . Sounds like Mrs. Flowers is keeping an element of mysterious for the Mr. 😉 hope today is a little cooler for everyone!
I hope the weather settles down. Good thing there is no global warming! I’m a good busy, getting to know my 1 1/2 year old grandson and having my other two grandsons 7 and 3 visiting with their parents. I’ve shoehorned them into my master bedroom and took over my smaller guest room. Lots of family visiting and chumming with all the cousins. I will miss the excitement, but to be truthful I’m ready for a break. I hope your homestead returns to a calmer state. It’s too bad about the piglet. Does Poppy behave like this in the heat or is it because of just farrowing?
Sorry about the piglet 🙁 I suppose you have no choice but to work in the heat and humidity, but it just kills me, absolutely drains me. Best of wishes to you coping with all the challenges. xx
This format (some words, no pics) works for me if you’re busy… I’d rather you got on with the important stuff, but of course I want to hear about it too. What will happen to Manu when you are no longer raising pigs?
Manu has a new home with a breeder down the road.
Our zone is sub-tropical but we are getting more extremes, more frequently. Which seems like what is happening where you are, and I think more commonly everywhere. If this is the new norm or a blip, who knows. I have begun reading up on Permaculture in preparation for beginning studying it with a focus on design in a few weeks. Before beginning indepth reading I thought I was across its premise but I had no idea of its breadth… a holistic, living and working with nature philosophy that can be applied across all aspects of day to day life.
It’s hard to imagine the midwest getting SO much rain and we’re dry as a bone here in the northwest! I wish we could trade weather for a few days! Ugh! I too am sorry you lost one of the piglets..Poppy is just not herself this time and especially with your miserable weather. Will you be selling her along with Molly? And didn’t Manu already leave the farm? Answer when you can.
I’m not sure if you ever saw the movie The Marigold Hotel? There is a line in it that I love and try to remember when things are going sideways…”Things will work out in the end and if they haven’t…it’s not the end!”
Molly and Manu have gone off. They both had the good genetics. So Poppy will set up housekeeping with Aunty Sheila. But as long as they are happy she can stay with her piglets for a good while.
Yes I saw the film and yes, I remember the line. And methinks it is most apt . . . today I am returning to both the heading of the day and the brief comment to Deb and thoughts I have had in my head for a long time somehow return , , . may the rains be gentle . . .
I hope you always keep your joy in mind when you make your priorities. I know you love that mill, but you also love the farm so it’s a big tug of war. But mostly I want you to be happy. So often we do the thing that feel practical by society and on paper, rather than by our souls.
A wonderful comment. Thank you so much. And now that the crowds have moved to the next post I must admit that it is my children who are pulling at me the most. I keep asking myself why I am still living so far from them.
Gosh Celi, it must be terribly difficult for you at times… Moving back to the US from teaching abroad was such a cultural change for me, and is often now quite frightening with this present administration. But being fairly close to family makes being back so nice.
Closer to family would be so good.
That is hard. You can’t feed all the joys I guess. So hard.
Thanks for answering C. when you have so much to deal with right now! Sometimes I read the other comments and I saw your reply to itsathought. I have an idea! How about 6 months in NZ and 6 months back here? Yes, I know…your John would probably never go for that but as isathought said….Follow your soul and heart…it’s the only one you have…
It is in fact a wonderful thought. Though ICE would not stand for it. My green card is void after three months away and you can’t get a 6 month visa anymore. However I am thinking deeply on how to do this.
“If there’s a will, there’s a way” and I know, you have the will!