Update

Tweedle, Tweedle, Tweedle, and Cockadoodle doo! Those are the sounds I hear this cool sunny spring morning. But the Song birds and Chickens aren’t the only sounds which I hear; the stiff cool breeze and the playful skirmishes of squirrels, the lizards scurrying about and the ringing of the wind chimes signal that springs grip is soon to be loosened to make way for a boisterous summer. The temperatures are reaching upper 80’s and low 90’s now and the daytime heat resembles more of a summer day than that of spring.

As I sit here at home and ponder what to write, I am filled with questions for the future. These questions include, but are not limited to, “well now that the bugs are beginning to over take my garden and my companion planting method doesn’t appear to be working or I did something wrong, do I start buying the organic sprays?” or another question may be, “do I incubate some of these eggs to make new younger chicks that can lay eggs without the special supplement to make them lay?”. With all of these questions, depending on the answer to each, come with a whole new set of more questions…like “if I am going to incubate the eggs, where do I get an Incubator?”

While I enjoy what I am doing and I did expect some hang ups, I didn’t however, realize everything would have a hang up. It is somewhat disappointing.

But then I am reminded that everything has a purpose and with that purpose comes responsibility. A person who is responsible knows that short term disappointments are negated by long term benefits. A person acting responsibly would also know to persist in the trial until the goal is achieved, assuming that it is an achievable goal (which a responsible person should learn before getting involved in a given venture).

So as I work out these issues, I am thinking about tonight. Thursdays are market night at the Ozark Main Street Market and I need to prepare the goods to take them up there. More and more I think that it would be good to attempt to sell here at the house to save gas, but I don’t get to town much as it is, this gives me a reason to do so. Normally I go out and grab a cooler and pick Spinach and Leaf Lettuce and put in the cooler as I pick to retain crispness and get the Radishes and that gets me at least gas money. But this time we don’t have Spinach (our cash crop apparently) because little bugs have eaten thousands of tiny holes in every leaf not to mention that they were bolting (going to seed) and where pretty much done anyway. We don’t mind eating those leaves but others would.

So what do we sell tonight? The question demands a suitable answer as we at least need to cover our gas (unlike last week) if not do better then that.

I’ve got to start thinking of some ideas of things to sell. These could be anything from crafts to quick growing plants…I don’t care. Just need a variety. The more stuff at the stand the more your booth stands out. Anyone having Ideas of things that are easy enough to do in one day let me know. I thought about firing up the Forge but I am not good enough at it to turn out work very quick…takes for ever to get something you can make mostly because I don’t have the stock that is ready and I have to make it ready…beating it to death. I’ve thought about making signs or plaques that have routed words on it…but not sure that would go over very well. So I am currently out of Ideas beyond what to grow next year as I have been given many Ideas by customers.

A note of optimism and excitement (for Brandy and I anyway) though we were planning on getting a honey extractor maybe next year or this year if we thought we were going to get any honey our first year. However, while we were at the May Ozarks Bee Keepers Association meeting last month we were told that the club had an extractor that they needed to get rid of. Now there were probably 50 or more people there and they heard the same thing we did. However, I began asking questions about it in succession and we ended up sealing the deal before anyone else could. Now I have been perusing the catalogues for an extractor and haven’t found them cheaper (for a cheapie) than $250 plus there was a $75 shipping charge. Most of the better models, which were what someone would really need for anyone having more then one hive, were between $500 and $600. This model we got was retailed at $650 when they got it 6 or so years ago, but we paid $125 and I picked it up so no shipping charges! Its hand Crank (sustainable….yes!) and it holds two frames at a time and the baskets rotate to extract the other side (the cheapo’s you have to pull the frames out and rotate them…messy!).

I had someone give me 3 round bails of hay that I can used to control weeds. For anyone interested, I use newspaper and lay it on the ground and put hay on top of the straw. It’s a bit time consuming but once its there its works all year and when you’re done all you do is till it in adding to your organic matter in the soil.

There are a few things going on in the background here, which I am not sure I am ready to reveal but let’s just say it’s to help us be self-sustaining and I will only give you a clue with a couple pictures.

I have begun to designate a day to a particular job. I have so many projects going I don’t know what to work on first. While some times I don’t want to work on some of them, they still need to be worked on. So I decided to write down on a day to do a specific job. Every Monday I do, such and such till it’s finished. This way I don’t forget about all I have to do…and I don’t get overwhelmed by the enormity of the work ahead of me.

Well below was a Rattler that I found on our place. Never found one this big and it certainly isnt a normal occurance to find one period.

Well to leave you I will say that famous Ozarks saying; I will talk to you again later, Lord willin’ and the Creek don’t rise!