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22 Comments

  1. Get or make a hoof stand. You and the horses will like it. To make it easier to pick their feet up always remember that if they are picking up the right front, you can also pick up left rear. If your having trouble picking up a hoof have them take a step and they will switch their balance. It’s like kicking out a leg on a table if you’re fighting them. They have to be in the correct stance. Just remember right front, left rear, or vice versa, left front, right rear.

    1. Hi Roadkill,

      We do have a hoof stand, but, I cannot clip hooves while they are resting upon it. I use it to file/rasp the front and sides of the hoof. I know how to get them to give me their hooves, but they also like to take them away. Therefore we have a bit of a battle of the wills.

      Blessings,

      Lily

  2. When picking blackberries, I use a pair of anvil pruners to clip thorned vines out of my way, makes picking several gallons thru the year easier and faster.

  3. I just plowed out our second crop of sweet corn and purple hull peas. We have had adequate rain in this region this year. Our first crop of corn did really well. Our first crop of peas did not. Too much rain made the grass and weeds go crazy. Purple hull, miller, black eye and crowder peas usually do better in hotter dryer weather. I helped our neighbor plant about 18 rows of peas in his garden this week. Got a 2″ rain and it’s already coming up. Teaching gardening and building community at the same time. Our small patch of heirloom pencil cob corn is almost dry enough to pick. We try to keep a fresh crop of seed corn every year. Looks we might have enough to take to the local grist mill and have some corn meal ground. we have a hand mill for times when no other way is available. Took 50 pounds of rice and had it ground last week. We made our first rice bread with it. Need to get started on our second cutting of hay, but the rain is still threatening too much. We need a high pressure area to come in and settle over us and block the rain for 10 days or so. I would like to sell some of our beef calves at the local auction, but the prices are way down and appear to continue a downward trend.

  4. Here at the “Ondarosa Farms,” succession planting has been the name of the game. As mature plants are harvested and canned, the ground is prepared and new seeds go in. The new plantings consist of all sorts of beans, Jade II, Yellow Wax, Henderson Bush Green and Lima’s. Yes, we like our beans.

    Rainwater collection has been a priority at our sanctuary for many years. We presently have about 2,000 gallons available. It was time for our small side porch with an 8′ metal awning, no guttering and no rainwater collection system to get one. This will provide us fairly “clean” water just outside the door.

    Have you ever assessed a new project, drawing from your past experiences, looked at the available materials you have and said, “This shouldn’t take long?” How many of you are familiar with the phrase, “goat rope.” That is exactly what we experienced over the course of the next THREE days! In retrospect, “Keystone Cops” come to mind so I won’t bore you with all the excruciating, and painful, details.

    My takeaway from this experience is reflected in the the British Army’s 7P’s adage, “Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents P Poor Performance.” Yes, I know there are a number of variations on the 5th “P” but in the future I need to stay focused on the first 3 “P’s.”

  5. This week I had to work on the vacuum pump on the freeze-dryer (FD) and since I am a novice it has been a try-this-and-see-if-it-works situation. At first the pump would not come on; then it came on but the pump seemed hotter than before and the drying time seemed longer than usual. Finally, after a couple of days, the pump function is back to normal and I am FD-ing normally. I used carrots as a trial since they are cheap and don’t spoil easily. In order to get everything preserved in a timely manner, I still pressure can veges and some of the meats. While running tests on the FD I canned corn and beans. I’ll be working on tomatoes the rest of the season. Put in the last planting of corn and sunflowers this week.

    Doctored up a few chickens who got tangled up in baling twine that had unraveled and blown in to the chicken yard. Half the hens are molting so they are not laying eggs thus they are getting into trouble while roaming about. Had to put some blood stop on a few of the hens and trim some feathers. It looks like I’ve got about 3-4 young roos which need to be harvested; bone broth coming up!!

    Went into a local grocery to and found the produce section half empty due to the recall alerts on various vegetables. There was a sign that said all suspect veges had been removed and what was left was FDA approved. For the time being, I’ll go back to the farmer’s market for things I don’t grow.

    We’ve gotten control of the cow flies and beetles but the no-see-ums (chiggers) are back along with mosquitoes. We are sensitive to bug bites and even though we wear long pants, boots and bug spray, they still manage to chew on us. In early spring we laid down an insect preventative on the yard around the house to keep the nasties under control for a couple of months. Now we have to lay-down another layer to get thru till the cold weather comes.

    Have a safe week.

  6. Very busy at work this week so it was hard to get any “work” around the homestead done. I did manage to get some electric wiring done in the pole barn. I purchased 2 retractable extension cords to cut down on the number of outlets I need. Completed the pegboard in the barn workshop. Still trying to get everything organized and in its place in the two barns. Picked up a nice pair of used Bushnell binoculars at the Salvation Army for $8.

  7. I had to laugh at the ZapIt description. I can imagine the murder in Mrs. Rawles eyes because it is visible in my wife’s when she goes after bugs.

    If there are a few flies in the house, she pulls her trusty fly swatter off the top of the refrigerator and commences the “hunt”. It is a little unnerving as she gets this little smile on her face that looks like the way a villain would smile just before conducting an axe murder in a horror movie. You stay out of her way as she commences the “stalk”. That satisfaction when she makes the “kill” is amazing.

    And now my wife wants a ZapIt.

    1. Hi JBH,

      Yes, I too, keep the fly swatter on the refrigerator. But now, I have that Zap It. Yes, for your wife’s peace of mind, and great satisfaction, you must acquire a Zap It, ASAP. Order it today! Amazon sells these delightful “tools”, uh, insect murder weapons! 😉

      Blessings,

      Lily

    2. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for that good laugh! My version was, I put a bounty on the flies. I offered my kids a $1.00 a fly. My youngest became quite adept at getting them. It was common to hear him say, “Mom, you owe me a dollar.” I was extremely happy to pay up.

  8. This past week I walked the farmer’s market and pickling cukes were abundant. I picked up 20 pounds and canned bread & butter pickles. Blackberries are also ripe so we put up blackberry jam and have been grazing daily on the remaining berries. I’ve also been taking inventory of my fruit in our chest freezers and older canned goods. This next week will be dedicated to trying some other options for putting food aside. I want to can applesauce in late August as our trees are loaded. In the meantime I am going to take the already canned applesauce and try freeze drying it in our Harvest Freeze Drying. If it works out well I will be freeing up space for newer canned goods and yet keeping the food we have already put up. We’ll see how it turns out.

    1. Please eventually post about how your freeze dried applesauce turns out. It sounds amazing. I have considered that freeze dryer but do not have one yet.

  9. Bovishield Gold one has to be careful with as it is a live virus vac. The BVD and IBR portions of it can cause abortion in bred cows unless they have prior immunity. I think all this is on the label . It is a good vac other than this. Also as it has to be reconstituted so unless you have several animals to give it to at the same time there is quite a waste. The advantage of modified live virus vacs is that they are generally less expensive and give better immunity. It really is more of a stocker and grower vac vs a pregnant cow vac.

    RS DVM

  10. “trimming hooves” When I pick up a horses hoof, I get them stuared up so they can hold their weight on the other three, then I lean into the horse to switch it’s center of balance and it gives them more confidence that they aren’t going to fall over. Never let them lean on you , if they start, lean away to give them the feeling they are tipping over. Work with their feet and teach them to give you their hoof, and NEVER, NEVER drop their hoof, everytime you relax your grip, eather in your hands or your legs they try to slam their foot down so they won’t fall. I pick up a hoof then hold it a few seconds and then push (gently) down, work the time the hoof is up until they hold it 3-4 minutes. when the horse knows your going to tell him when to put his foot down, he will hold it. Now a horse can’t put himself into trimming and shoeing position, but they can hold it a couple inches off the ground and flex when you lift. Most importantly he is balancing on the other three and holding himself up. It takes time and trust but it is worth it.

    1. Hi Vcc,

      Very interesting! I didn’t realize the balance issue. I’ve only been around our horses for about seven years. I love them very much, and there is still a lot that I don’t know about them. Thank you for this information. If you feel lead to tell us more horse information tidbits, we would love to hear about them. I will start training our horses to hold for me.

      Thank You for chiming in.

      Blessings,

      Lily

    1. Hi Katie,

      Please forgive us, but, no. She came to us already named with a name that we like very much, that we’re keeping.

      For our operational security (OPSEC) we can never use real names for pets, livestock, or family in this blog. All names are our pen names.

      Blessings,

      Lily

  12. I grew up with horses in hot and arid Southern Arizona. The climate made our horses hooves very tough. This can make hoof trimming a very laborious task. During the hot and dry season, we would often try to get our horses feet muddy. This seemed to make the hoof softer and also seemed to prevent cracking. The easiest way to accomplish this was to flood the area around the water tanks. This would insure they would stand in mud several times a day. It worked well for us, and our farrier appreciated it.

  13. I broke down and bought cases of spam at Costco. LOL. And cases of canned corn. Case lot sales coming soon at the local Ridleys. I canned another 10 pints of cucumbers. It’s been pretty hot, so I stopped canning for a few weeks. Found a large used chest freezer local and just ordered beef from a local rancher. I went whole hog on planning this year replete with a spreadsheet for inventory and tracking. You know, you can go broke stocking up, so I’m trying very hard to be methodical and logical. I don’t want anything to go to waste. I had one of those fly zappers a couple of years ago, and I took great pride in the number of dead flies in my kitchen!!

  14. Storage issues abound now that we are getting closer to our goals. And that is without animals or a garden this year.

    Lots of organizing going on. With the NY cabin as done as it is going to get (move in ready should that be necessary), my focus is now the Redoubt cabin.

    Getting the fire barrier under control and the wood cutting, splitting and stacking going strong. Also eating through the fridge freezer to make room for summer bounty…even if I wasn’t able to grow it myself.

    BTW, Lilly, I grew up with horses and admire your ambition on tackling the hooves. Cleaning them was always my job, but my father always did the trimming.

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