A whole lotta........Bull

There were a few things I was going to talk about today, but my end of the day just went to the top of my list.  Having a husband who use to ride bulls would make you think that the idea of the site of a bull would be somewhat mundane.  Not this ol' girl!  I love the majestic look of any bull from a distance, tonight however I would have  that up close and personal picture. While tending to my night time chicken routine, the dogs started barking at the back gate.  In general this barking could be due to Patty's goat, Suzie-Q or one of the other dogs next door standing their ground.  As I looked out to see, there was J.D.,that is short for Jack Daniels, the 1200 lbs pound Corriente bull just standing at the gate looking a little disturbed that the dogs were barking at him.  I went back into the coupe after telling the dogs to leave him alone.  About two minutes later they were at it again only louder and with a little more concern in their tone.  Okay, I said as I came out of the coupe only to come face to face with not just the dogs but J.D. who had determined that "he" needed to be on my side of the fence, that was,  after taking out the gate.  Did I say he was a bull?  With a very large rack.....that is horns for you non-rodeo readers.  Shouting, followed by my husband coming from the front only to realize that the bull was on our side of the fence, game on!  From this point on I just seemed to be running from one side of the property to the other while Brian quickly took down the gate and Blaine and I kept an eye on J.D.  At this point all I wanted was not to get run over by the bull because of course if anyone would get hurt it would be me!   What seemed like an hour, but only really 10 minutes, the gate was down.  Waving and hooting, alright, just Blaine and I were waving and hooting, Brian just seemed as calm as if he had done this before.  J.D. finally started back to Greg's, but not without the occasional stop to see if he could ditch out on some side path.  Those cattle dogs we have, they were no where in site, and Jo the best dog, under her chair-hiding, I think they need more exposure!   Well mission accomplished, with a little determination and of course a fearless husband J.D. was back on his side of the fence, without incident.   It made for an exciting ending to my day.  So why blog about it, well sometimes when you homestead, ranch, or farm, you get more than you bargain for not from your livestock, but from your neighbors.  Thanks Greg!  A good subject for the next blog.......how to maintain and select proposer fencing for your livestock.   See ya soon!

Priorities.............Which ones are important?

Sonoma Coast Sunset 1/1/13

Okay, it has been some time since I started this blog and suddenly I found myself lost.  Lost in the everyday ins and outs of life on a homestead and raising children, raising livestock and suddenly the days turn into weeks and weeks into months, well you get the picture.  So what do you do?  Well it was time for me to prioritize.   You would think that at my age, no I will not reveal that number, I would know how to prioritize.  Sometimes life keeps handing you things to do.  Most, realize what they can take on and say "no" to everything else.  Me, we'll let's say "no" is, or has not been present in my vocabulary for some time.  Top all of those "yes's" off with a two years ongoing medical issues with my arm and everything, that means, all that is important to me is on the back burner.  Fast forward to 2013, things are being shed, priorities are being set, and all that is important to me is taking a front seat.  So on with the blog.  I want this blog to represent all of the wonderful things that my family and I are doing to obtain self sufficiency.  Over the time that I have not been blogging I have been engage in others blogs of interest.  It is amazing how many of us blog, and how much we blog about. I have learned so many new things.

It is still cold outside here were we are so what is in the ground is limited.  However, we did take a big jump and plant several boxes of garlic.  We have a few beats left, and that is about it.  So what to do in the winter, this winter?   I have taken a tip from a relative and jumped into freeing my home of all harmful cleaners.  The first of hopefully several steps to getting back to basics.  My first project, LAUNDRY SOAP, yes, do not laugh.  I am, getting ready to make my first batch.  Now I tried Laura's laundry soap and really liked it.  It felt clean and smelled clean.  I am not one to waste though, so I have about 1/4 of a container of my regular soap left.  We have our wash water flowing out to do lawn irrigation, so what we are irrigating with is important, not to mention any flow of water attracts the chickens.   So recipe in hand, and armed with the ingredients I need; Borax, baking soda and my grated lye soap from http://store.mosoap.com/. I am ready to take off this weekend.  Oh you would like to join me?  Okay well stay tuned, the recipe and equipment needed are yet to come.  See ya soon!